UUSB    LIBKAKX 


AMERICA  IN  THE  WAR 

V 
OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 


\ 


I  3 

5   - 


AMERICA   IN   THE   WAR 


OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 


BY 

HEYWOOD  BROUN 

FORMERLY    COBBESPCXNDENT   FOR   THE   "NEW    YORK   TRIBUNE"   WITH   THE 
AMERICAN   EXPEDITIONARY   FORCE 


ILLUSTRATED 


NEW  YORK 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 
1919 


OOPTRIOHT,    1918,   BT 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTBB  •     PASB 

I.  THE  LANDING  OF  PERSHING 1 

II.  "VivE  PAIR-SHANG!" 11 

III.  THE  FIRST  DIVISION  LANDS 29 

IV.  THE  FOURTH  OF  JULY 44 

V.  WHAT  THEY  LIVED  IN 53 

VI.  GETTING  THEIR  STRIDE 66 

VII.  SPEEDING  UP     81 

VIII.  BACK  WITH  THE  BIG  GUNS 96 

IX.  THE  EYES  OF  THE  ARMY 107 

X.  THE  SCHOOLS  FOR  OFFICERS 117 

XI.  SOME  DISTINGUISHED  VISITORS 124 

XII.  THE  MEN  WHO  DID  EVERYTHING    .    .    .  134 

XIII.  BEHIND  THE  LINES 145 

XIV.  FRANCE  AND  THE  MEDICOES 158 

XV.  IN  CHARGE  OF  MORALE 168 

XVI.  INTO  THE  TRENCHES  177 


vi  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAOB 

XVII.     OUR  OWN  SECTOR 189 

XVIII.    A  CIVILIAN  VISITOR 200 

XIX.     A  FAMOUS  GESTURE 212 

XX.  THE  FIRST  Two  BATTLES 224 

XXI.  TEUFEL-HUNDEN    .     ..     M     r.;     .      .  2  •  - 
XXII.    THE  ARMY  o*  ^IANCEUVRE     .....  248 

XXIII.     ST.  MmiEL 266 

XXTV.    MEUSE-ARGONNE  BEGINS 279 

XXV.    CEASE  FIRING 291 

GENERAL  PERSHING'S  REPOI  301 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


The  battle  of  Seicheprey Frontispiece 

FACING  PAGE 

General  Pershing  in  Paris,  July,  1917 16 

Buglers  of  the  Alpine  Chasseurs,  assisted  by  their  military 
band,    entertaining   American   soldiers   of   the   First 

Division 64 

U.  S.  locomotive-assembling  yards  in  France 154 

Red  Cross  Hospital  at  Neuilly,  formerly  the  American 

Ambulance  Hospital      .'• 166 

Secretary  Baker  riding  on  fkj;  ear-  during  his  tour  of  in- 
spection of  the  American  Expeditionary  Forces   .    .    .  202 

TJ.  S.  Marines  in  readiness  to  march  to  the  front    ....  244 

The  capture  of  Sergy 262 


OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

CHAPTER   I 
THE  LANDING  OF  PERSHING 

A  SHIP  warped  into  an  English  port.  Along 
her  decks  were  lines  of  soldiers,  of  high 
and  low  degree,  all  in  khaki.  From  the  shore 
end  of  her  gang-plank  other  lines  of  soldiers 
spread  out  like  fan-sticks,  some  in  khaki,  some 
in  the  two  blues  of  land  and  sea  fighters.  Dec- 
orating the  fan-sticks  were  the  scarlet  and  gold 
of  staff-officers,  the  blue  and  gold  of  naval  offi- 
cers, the  yellow  and  gold  of  land  officers,  and 
the  black  of  a  few  distinguished  civilians. 

At  the  end  of  one  shore-line  of  khaki  one 
rigid  private  stood  out  from  the  rest,  holding 
for  dear  life  to  a  massive  white  goat.  The 
goat  was  the  most  celebrated  mascot  in  the 
British  Army,  and  this  was  an  affair  of  price- 
less consequence,  but  that  was  no  sign  the  goat 


2  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

intended  to  behave  himself,  and  the  private 
was  responsible. 

Weaving  through  this  picture  of  military  pre- 
cision, three  little  groups  of  men  waited  rest- 
lessly to  get  aboard  the  ship.  One  was  the 
lord  mayor  of  the  port  city,  his  gilt  chains  of 
office  blazing  in  the  forenoon  brightness,  with 
his  staff;  another  was  the  half-dozen  or  so  of 
distinguished  statesmen,  diplomats,  and  mili- 
tary heroes  bringing  formal  welcome  to  Eng- 
land; the  third  was  the  war  correspondents 
and  reporters  from  the  London  newspapers. 

The  waiting  was  too  keen  and  anxious  for 
talk.  Excitement  raced  from  man  to  man. 

For  the  ship  was  the  Baltic.  The  time  was 
the  morning  of  June  8,  1917.  The  event  was 
the  landing  of  John  J.  Pershing,  commander  of 
America's  Expeditionary  Force.  And  the  sol- 
diers with  him  were  the  herald  of  America's  com- 
ing— the  holding  of  her  drive  with  an  outpost. 

When  the  grandchildren  of  those  soldiers 
learn  that  date  in  their  history  lessons  it  is  safe 
to  assume  that  all  its  historical  significance  will 
be  fairly  worked  out  and  articulate. 

It  is  equally  safe  to  say  that  in  the  moment 


THE  LANDING  OF  PERSHING  3 

of  its  happening  few  if  any  of  its  participants, 
even  the  most  consequential  and  far-seeing, 
had  a  personal  sense  of  making  history.  Of  all 
the  pies  that  one  may  not  both  eat  and  have, 
the  foremost  is  that  very  taking  part  in  a  great 
occasion.  All  the  fun  of  it  is  being  got  by  the 
man  who  stays  at  home  and  reads  the  news- 
papers, undistracted  by  the  press  of  practical 
matters  in  hand. 

True,  for  the  landing  of  General  Pershing  there 
was  the  color  of  soldiery,  the  blare  of  brass 
bands,  the  ring  of  great  names  among  the  wel- 
comers.  There  was,  of  course,  the  overtone  pic- 
ture of  a  great  chieftain,  marching  in  advance  of 
a  great  army,  come  to  foreign  lands  to  add  their 
might  to  what,  with  their  coming,  was  then  a 
world  in  arms.  The  future  might  see,  blended 
with  the  gray  hulk  of  the  Baltic.,  the  shadowy 
shape  of  the  Mayflower  coming  back,  still  carry- 
ing men  bound  to  the  service  of  world  freedom. 

But  what  they  saw  that  morning  was,  after 
all,  a  very  modern  landing,  from  a  very  modern 
ship,  with  sailors  hastily  tying  down  a  gang- 
plank, and  doing  it  very  well  because  they  had 
done  it  just  that  way  so  many  times  before. 


4  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

The  Royal  Welsh  Fusiliers  were  down  to  give 
a  military  welcome,  with  their  mascot  and  their 
crack  band.  The  lord  mayor,  Lieutenant-Gen- 
eral  Pitcairn  Campbell,  Admiral  Stileman,  and 
other  men  from  both  arms  of  England's  service 
were  there,  not  to  feel  of  then*  feelings,  but  to 
make  the  landing  as  agreeable  and  convenient 
as  possible,  and  to  convey  to  General  Pershing, 
with  Anglo-Saxon  mannerliness  and  reticence, 
their  great  pleasure  at  having  him  come, 

As  soon  as  there  was  access  to  the  ship  Gen- 
eral Campbell  and  Admiral  Stileman  went 
aboard  and  introduced  themselves  to  General 
Pershing.  They  met,  also,  a  few  of  the  Ameri- 
can staff-officers,  and  returned  salutes  from  the 
privates  who  made  up  the  Pershing  entourage 
of  168  men. 

There  were  congratulations  on  the  ship's  safe 
arrival,  which  reminded  General  Pershing  and 
some  of  his  officers  that  they  wanted,  before 
leaving  the  ship,  to  pay  their  respects  to  the 
skipper  who  had  carried  them  through  the 
danger  zone  without  so  much  as  a  sniff  at  a 
submarine. 

This   done,    the   little   company   of   officers 


THE  LANDING  OF  PERSHING  5 

walked  down  the  gang-plank,  talking  cheerily  of 
their  satisfaction  at  meeting,  of  their  hard  work 
on  the  ship,  of  the  weather,  and  what-not,  all 
the  while  the  soldiers  on  the  decks  behind  them 
waved  hands  and  handkerchiefs  in  a  general 
overflow  of  well-being,  and  finally — set  foot  in 
England ! 

One  may  not  go  too  far  in  describing  the 
contents  of  a  general's  mind  without  some  help 
from  him,  but  it's  a  fair  guess  that  if  General 
Pershing  is  as  kin  to  his  kind  as  he  seems  to 
be,  the  very  precise  moment  of  this  setting  foot 
in  England  escaped  his  notice  altogether,  and 
was  left  free  for  the  historian  to  embroider 
how  he  pleased.  For  General  Pershing  was  in 
the  act  of  being  led  to  the  salute  of  a  guard  of 
honor  by  General  Campbell.  And  almost  im- 
mediately after  that  precise  moment  the  Welsh 
Fusiliers'  band  began  the  "  Star-Spangled  Ban- 
ner," and  again  it's  a  good  bet  that  General 
Pershing  and  his  staff  thought  not  a  thing 
about  England  and  a  lot  about  home. 

But  so  the  historic  moment  came,  and  so  it 
went.  And  presently  the  American  vanguard  was 
finding  its  places  in  the  special  train  to  London. 


6  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

Perhaps  England  knew  that  a  great  hour  was 
in  the  making,  for  her  rolling  green  hills  gave 
back  the  warmth  of  a  splendid  sun,  and  her 
hedgerows  and  wild  blooms  braved  forth  in 
crystal  air.  Those  of  the  newcomers  who  saw 
England  first  that  afternoon  thanked  their  stars 
fervently  that  England  and  democracy  were  on 
the  same  side. 

In  mid-afternoon  the  train  reached  London, 
and  here  the  Americans  were  greeted,  not  alone 
by  soldiers  and  England,  but  by  the  English. 
The  secret  of  their  coming,  carefully  kept,  had 
given  the  port  civilians  no  chance.  But  they 
knew  it  in  London  and  the  station  was  crowded 
to  its  doors. 

General  Pershing  stepped  from  the  train  as 
soon  as  it  stopped.  Ambassador  Walter  Hines 
Page  came  over  to  him,  both  hands  outstretched, 
and  asked  leave  to  introduce  another  general  who 
had  taken  an  Expeditionary  Force  to  France- 
General  Sir  John  French.  Other  introductions 
followed — to  Lord  Derby,  General  Lord  Brooke, 
and  Sir  Francis  Lloyd.  And  there  was  a  hearty 
handshake  from  a  fighter  who  needed  no  intro- 
duction— Rear-Admiral  William  E.  Sims. 


THE  LANDING  OF  PERSHING  7 

Inside  and  outside  the  station  the  civilians 
cheered.  None  of  them  needed  to  have  General 
Pershing  pointed  out  to  them.  He  was  unmis- 
takable. No  man  ever  looked  more  the  or- 
dained leader  of  fighting  men.  He  was  tall, 
broad,  and  deep-chested,  splendidly  set  up;  and 
to  the  care  with  which  Providence  had  fash- 
ioned him  he  had  added  soldierly  care  of  his 
own. 

He  might  have  been  patterned  upon  the 
Freudian  dream  of  Julius  Csesar,  if  Julius  was 
in  truth  the  unsoldierly  looking  person  they 
made  him  out  to  be,  whose  majesty  lay  wholly 
in  his  own  mind's  eye. 

The  gallant  look  of  General  Pershing  fanned 
the  London  friendliness  to  contagious  flames  of 
enthusiasm.  He  and  his  officers  were  cheered 
to  their  hotel,  the  soldiers  were  cheered  to  their 
barracks  in  the  Tower  of  London. 

At  the  hotel  they  found  three  floors  turned 
over  to  them,  arranged  for  good,  hard  work, 
with  plenty  of  desk-room,  and  boy  and  girl 
scouts  for  running  errands.  Squarely  in  the 
entrance  was  a  money-changer's  desk,  with  a 
patient  man  in  charge  who  could,  and  did, 


8  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

name  the  number  of  cents  to  the  shilling  once 
every  minute  for  four  days.  A  little  English 
lady  who  visited  America  complained  bitterly, 
just  after  arrival,  "Why  didn't  they  make  their 
dollar  just  four  shillings?"  thereby  summing 
up  the  only  really  valid  source  of  acrimony 
between  England  and  America.  The  money- 
changer made  the  international  amity  complete. 

Once  installed,  General  Pershing  and  his  staff 
fell  to  and  worked,  continuing  the  organization 
that  had  been  roughly  blocked  out  on  the  Bal- 
tic, and  building  up  the  liaison  between  English 
and  American  army  procedure,  begun  by  the 
help  of  British  and  Canadian  officers  on  board, 
by  frequent  conferences  with  England's  State, 
War,  and  Navy  Departments. 

The  day  after  the  arrival  General  Pershing 
went  to  "breakfast  at  Windsor,"  the  first  meet- 
ing between  America's  fighter  and  England's 
King.  Here,  at  last,  the  moinentousness  of  the 
matter  found  voice. 

King  George,  having  done  with  the  introduc- 
tory greeting,  said  earnestly:  "I  cannot  tell 
you  how  much  your  coming  means  to  me.  It 
has  been  the  great  dream  of  my  life  that  my 


THE  LANDING  OF  PERSHING  9 

country  and  yours  would  join  in  some  great 
enterprise  .  .  .  and  here  you  are.  ..." 

After  this  visit,  prolonged  by  an  inspection 
of  the  historic  treasures  of  Windsor  Castle, 
General  Pershing  made  the  rule  of  unbroken 
work  for  himself  and  his  officers  till  his  task  in 
London  was  finished  and  he  should  leave  for 
France  to  join  his  First  Division. 

He  made  what  he  expected  to  be  a  single  ex- 
ception to  this  rule.  He  went  to  a  dinner- 
party, at  which  he  met  Lloyd-George,  Arthur 
Balfour,  just  back  from  his  American  mission, 
and  half  a  dozen  others  of  commensurate  dis- 
tinction. He  found  that  his  exception  was  no 
exception  at  all.  The  English  do  not  merely 
have  the  reputation  of  doing  their  real  work  at 
their  dinner-parties — they  deserve  that  reputa- 
tion. Staff-officers,  telling  all  about  it  later  on, 
said  that  it  could  hardly  have  been  distinguished 
from  a  cabinet  meeting,  or  a  report  from  the 
Secretary  of  State  for  War.  So  were  the  final 
plans  made  and  the  business  of  the  nations 
settled. 

Concerning  all  these  meetings  and  all  the  na- 
tional feeling  that  was  behind  them,  General 


10  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

Pershing  and  his  officers  were  of  one  voice — 
that  England's  welcome  had  been  precisely  of 
the  sort  that  pleased  them  most.  It  was  reti- 
cent, charming,  too  genuine  for  much  open  ex- 
pression, too  chivalrous  at  heart  to  be  obtrusive. 
What  with  spending  most  of  each  twenty- 
four  hours  at  work,  the  American  vanguard 
finished  up  its  affairs  in  four  days.  And  early 
on  the  morning  of  June  13,  long  before  the  break 
of  day,  General  Pershing  and  his  officers  and 
men  boarded  their  Channel  boat,  the  Invicta, 
and  set  sail  for  France. 


CHAPTER  H 
"VIVE  PAIR-SHANG!" 

THE  Invicta  came  into  Boulogne  harbor  in 
the  early  morning,  to  find  that  her  at- 
tempts at  a  secret  crossing  had  amounted  to 
nothing  at  all.  Everybody  within  sight  and 
ear-shot  was  out  to  show  how  pleased  he  was, 
riotously  and  openly,  indifferent  alike  to  the 
hopes  of  spy  or  censor. 

The  fishing-boats,  the  merchant  coastwise 
fleet,  the  Channel  ships  and  hordes  of  little  pri- 
vately owned  sloops  and  yawls  and  motor-boats 
all  plied  chipperly  around  with  "bannieres 
etoilees"  fore  and  aft.  The  sun  was  very  bright 
and  the  water  was  very  blue,  and  between  them 
was  that  exhilarating  air  which  always  rises 
over  the  coasts  of  France,  whenever  and  wher- 
ever you  land  on  them,  which  not  all  the  smoke 
and  grime  of  the  world's  biggest  war  could 
deaden  or  destroy. 

The  Invicta  s  own  flags  were  run  up  at  the 

11 


12  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

harbor  mouth.  Again  the  lines  of  khaki-col- 
ored soldiers  formed  behind  the  deck-rails,  and 
again  the  chieftain  from  overseas  stood  at  the 
prow  of  his  ship  and  waited  the  coming  of  a 
historic  moment. 

When  the  Invicta  was  made  fast  and  her 
gang-plank  went  over,  there  was  a  half -circle  of 
space  cleared  in  the  quay  in  front  of  her  by  a 
detachment  of  grizzled  French  infantrymen, 
their  horizon -blue  uniforms  filmed  over  with 
the  yellow  dust  of  a  long  march. 

Behind  the  infantrymen  the  good  citizens  of 
Boulogne  were  yelling  their  throats  dry.  When 
General  Pershing  stopped  for  an  instant's  sur- 
vey at  the  head  of  the  gang-plank,  with  his 
staff-officers  close  behind  him,  the  roar  of  wel- 
come swelled  to  thunder  and  resounded  out  to 
sea.  When  he  marched  down  and  stepped  to 
the  quay,  there  was  a  sudden,  arresting  silence. 
Every  soldier  was  at  salute,  and  every  civilian, 
too.  In  that  tense  instant  a  new  world  was  be- 
ginning, and  though  it  was  as  formless  as  all 
beginnings,  the  unerringly  dramatic  and  sensi- 
tive French  paid  the  tribute  of  silence  to  its 
birth.  The  future  was  to  say  that  in  that  in- 


"VIVE  PAIR-SHANG!"  13 

stant  the  world  allied  on  new  bases,  that  men 
now  fought  together  not  because  their  lands  lay 
neighboring,  or  were  jointly  menaced  by  some 
central  foe,  but  because  they  would  follow  their 
own  ideal  to  wherever  it  was  in  danger.  An 
American  general  had  brought  his  fighters  three 
thousand  miles  because  a  principle  of  world 
order  and  world  right  needed  the  added  strength 
of  his  arms.  And  never  before  had  American 
soldiers  come  in  their  uniforms  to  do  battle  on 
the  continent  of  Europe. 

The  moment's  silence  ended  as  startlingly  as 
it  began.  Bands  and  cheerers  set  in  again  on 
one  beat.  The  officers  who  had  come  to  make 
a  formal  welcome  fell  back  and  let  the  unpre- 
pared public  uproar  have  way. 

General  Pershing  and  his  officers  walked 
through  aisles  strenuously  forced  by  the  infan- 
trymen, to  where  carriages  waited  to  carry 
them  through  the  Boulogne  streets. 

It  must  have  seemed  to  the  little  American 
contingent  as  if  every  Frenchman  in  France 
had  come  up  to  the  coast  for  the  celebration. 

From  the  carriages  the  crowds  stretched  solid 
in  every  direction.  The  streets  were  blanketed 


14  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

under  uncountable  flags.  Every  window  held 
its  capacity  of  laughing  and  cheering  French- 
women. 

Children  ran  along  the  streets,  shrilling 
"Vive  FAmerique!"  and  laughing  hilariously 
when  their  flowers  were  caught  by  the  grateful 
but  embarrassed  American  officers. 

When  the  special  train  to  Paris  had  started 
the  officers  mopped  their  faces  and  settled  back 
for  a  modest  time.  But  they  reckoned  with- 
out their  French.  Not  a  town  along  the  way 
missed  its  chance  to  greet  the  Americans.  The 
stations  were  packed,  the  cheers  were  incessant, 
the  roses  poured  in  deluges  into  the  train- 
windows. 

But  at  the  Gare  du  Nord,  in  Paris,  the  official 
French  greeting  was  too  magnificent  to  be 
pushed  aside  further  by  mere  populace. 

There  were  cordons  of  soldiers  drawn  up  in 
the  station,  stiff  at  attention,  making  aisles  by 
which  the  French  officials  could  get  to  the 
Americans.  There  were  officers  in  brilliant  uni- 
form, covered  with  medals  for  heroic  service. 
There  were  massed  bands,  led  by  the  Garde 
Republicans.  "Papa  Joffre"  was  there,  with 


"VIVE  PAIR-SHANG!"  15 

his  co-missioner,  Viviani;  Painleve,  then  Min- 
ister of  War,  and  presently  to  have  a  while 
as  Premier;  General  Foch,  Marne  hero,  now 
generalissimo,  and  Ambassador  William  G. 
Sharp. 

These,  with  General  Pershing,  Major  Robert 
Bacon,  a  member  of  Pershing's  staff  and  lately 
ambassador  to  France,  and  two  or  three  other 
staff -officers,  found  open  motor-cars  waiting  to 
drive  them  to  the  Hotel  Crillon,  on  the  Place 
de  la  Concorde,  the  temporary  American  head- 
quarters. 

Dense  crowds  of  soldiers  patrolled  the  streets 
leading  down  to  the  Grand  Boulevards,  through 
which  the  distinguished  little  procession  was 
to  take  its  way,  and  other  soldiers  lined  up  at 
attention  in  the  boulevards. 

Paris  turned  loose,  with  her  heart  in  her 
mouth  and  her  enthusiasm  at  red  heat,  is  not 
easily  forgotten.  On  this  June  day  her  rap- 
tures were  immemorial.  They  were  of  a  sort 
to  call  out  the  old-timers  for  standards  of  com- 
parison. 

Every  sentence  now  spoken  in  France  begins 
either  "Avant  la  guerre"  or  "Depuis  la  guerre." 


16  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

Nobody  can  ignore  the  fact  that  with  August, 
1914,  the  whole  of  life  changed.  To  the  old- 
timers  who  wanted  to  tell  you  what  Paris  was 
like  the  afternoon  Pershing  arrived,  there  were 
only  two  occasions  possible,  both  "Depuis  la 
guerre." 

The  first  great  day  was  that  following  the 
order  for  general  mobilization,  when  exaltation, 
defiance,  threat,  and  frenzy  packed  the  na- 
tional spirit  to  suffocation,  and  when  the 
streets  flowed  with  unending  streams  of  grim 
but  undaunted  people.  Tragic  days  and  relief 
days  followed.  But  the  next  great  tune,  when 
tragedy  did  not  outweigh  every  other  feeling, 
was  that  14th  of  July,  1916,  when  the  military 
parades  were  begun  again,  for  the  first  tune 
since  the  war,  and  in  the  line  of  march  were 
detachments  from  the  armies  of  all  the  Allies. 

The  third  great  French  war  festival  was  for 
Pershing.  The  crowds  were  literally  every- 
where. The  streets  through  which  the  motors 
passed  were  tightly  blocked  except  for  the  lit- 
tle road  cleared  by  the  soldiers.  The  streets 
giving  off  these  were  jammed  solid.  American 
flags  were  in  every  window,  on  every  lamp-post, 


Copyright  by  the  Committee  on  Public  Information. 

General  Pershing  in  Paris,  July,  1917, 


"VIVE  PAIR-SHANG  !"  17 

on  every  taxicab,  and  in  every  wildly  waving 
hand. 

Although  the  soldiers  could  force  a  way  open 
before  the  motor-cars,  no  human  agency  could 
keep  the  way  free  behind  them.  The  Parisians 
wanted  not  merely  to  see  Pershing — they  wanted 
to  march  with  him.  So  they  fell  in,  tramping 
the  boulevards  close  behind  the  cars,  cheering 
and  singing  to  their  marching  step. 

Only  when  General  Pershing  disappeared 
under  the  arched  doorway  of  the  Hotel  Crillon, 
and  let  it  be  known  that  he  had  other  gear  to 
tend,  did  the  city  in  procession  break  apart 
and  go  about  its  several  private  celebrations. 

But  all  that  afternoon  and  all  that  night, 
wherever  men  and  women  collected,  or  chil- 
dren were  underfoot,  it  was  "Vive  1'Amerique" 
and  "Vive  le  Generale  Pair-shang"  that  echoed 
when  the  glasses  rose. 

When  General  Pershing,  after  the  tremendous 
experience  of  his  European  landing,  asked  for 
the  quiet  and  shelter  of  his  own  quarters  at  the 
Crillon,  his  intention  was  that  his  retirement 
should  be  complete.  He  said  flatly  that  a  man 
who  had  just  witnessed  such  a  tribute  to  his 


18  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

country  as  Paris  had  made  that  afternoon  was 
no  better  than  he  should  be  if  he  did  not  feel 
the  need  of  solitude. 

But  the  inevitable  aftermath  of  the  great 
event  the  world  over  is  the  talking  with  the 
newspapers.  And  sure  enough,  no  sooner  was 
General  Pershing  safe  in  his  retreat  than  the 
Paris  reporters  were  knocking  at  the  door. 
The  American  correspondents  who  had  trav- 
elled over  from  London  on  the  Invicta  had  had 
emphatic  instructions  to  stay  away,  story  or  no 
story.  But  one  distinguished  Frenchman  broke 
the  rules,  and  to  Frangois  de  Jessen,  of  Le 
Temps,  General  Pershing  did  finally  give  a 
statement.  How  reluctantly  one  may  see  from 
the  statement's  contents. 

"I  came  to  Europe  to  organize  the  participa- 
tion of  our  army  in  this  immense  conflict  of  free 
nations  against  the  enemies  of  liberty,  and  not 
to  deliver  fine  speeches  at  banquets,  or  have 
:nan  published  in  the  newspapers,"  said  Gen- 
eral Pershing.  "Besides,  that  is  not  my  bus?- 
ness,  and,  you  know,  we  Americans,  soldiers 
and  civilians,  like  not  only  to  appear,  but  to  be, 
businesslike.  However,  since  you  offer  me  an 


"VIVE  PAIR-SHANG!"  19 

opportunity  to  speak  to  France,  I  am  glad  to 
make  you  a  short  and  simple  confession. 

"As  a  man  and  as  a  soldier  I  am  profoundly 
happy  over,  indeed  proud  of,  the  high  mission 
with  which  I  am  charged.  But  all  this  is 
purely  personal,  and  might  appear  out  of  pro- 
portion with  the  solemnity  of  the  hour  and  the 
gravity  of  events  now  occurring.  If  I  have 
thought  it  proper  to  indulge  in  this  confidence, 
it  is  because  I  wish  to  express  my  admiration  of 
the  French  soldier,  and  at  the  same  time  to  ex- 
press my  pride  in  being  at  the  side  of  the  French 
and  allied  armies. 

"It  is  much  more  important,  I  think,  to  an- 
nounce that  we  are  the  precursors  of  an  army 
that  is  firmly  resolved  to  do  its  part  on  the 
Continent  for  the  cause  the  American  nation 
has  adopted  as  its  own.  We  come  conscious  of 
the  historic  duty  to  be  performed  when  our  flag 
shows  itself  upon  the  battle-fields  of  the  world. 
It  is  not  my  role  to  promise  or  to  prophesy. 
Let  it  suffice  to  tell  you  that  we  know  what  we 
are  doing,  and  what  we  want." 

Two  rememberable  experiences  waited  the 
next  day  for  General  Pershing.  The  first  was 


20  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

his  visit  to  des  Invalides,  the  tomb  of  Napoleon ; 
the  second,  his  appearance  in  the  French  Cham- 
ber of  Deputies.  If  he  had  known  what  it  was 
to  be  the  hero  of  all  Paris  at  once,  he  was  to 
learn  how  special  groups  regarded  him,  and 
what  the  French  highest-in-command  thought 
fitting  for  America's  leader. 

At  all  of  General  Pershing's  appearances  in 
Paris  in  these  first  days  a  detachment  of  sol- 
diers had  to  be  constantly  before  him,  widening 
a  way  for  him  through  the  crowds  that  waited 
his  coming.  On  the  morning  of  his  visit  to  the 
tomb  of  Napoleon  the  broad  Champs  de  Mars, 
in  front  of  des  Invalides,  was  impassable  except 
by  the  soldiers'  flying  wedge.  Shouts  in  French 
rang  out  steadily  as  he  made  his  way  toward 
des  Invalides'  entrances,  and  suddenly  a  man 
cried,  in  accented  English:  "Behind  him  there 
are  ten  million  more." 

But  once  inside  des  Invalides  General  Persh- 
ing  was  alone  with  General  Niox,  who  was 
in  charge  of  the  famous  treasure  building,  and 
General  Joffre,  Between  Pershing  and  Joffre 
there  had  begun  one  of  those  intense  friendships 
that  form  too  impetuously  for  ordinary  expla- 


"VIVE  PAIR-SHANG!"  21 

nation.  It  was  full-grown  at  the  end  of  their 
first  meeting,  a  matter  of  seconds.  And  though 
at  this  time  their  friendly  intercourse  was  halted 
sometimes  by  the  fact  that  neither  spoke  the 
other's  language,  they  were  continually  together. 

So  it  was  General  Joffre  who  walked  beside 
him  when  General  Pershing  followed  General 
Niox  down  to  the  entrance  of  the  crypt,  and 
stood  before  the  door.  All  the  world  may  go 
to  this  door,  if  its  behavior  is  good,  but  only 
royal  applicants  may  go  beyond  it. 

General  Pershing  was  to  go  inside.  General 
Niox  handed  him  the  great  key,  then  turned 
away  with  Joffre,  while  Pershing,  after  a  mo- 
ment's hesitation,  fitted  the  key  and  crossed 
the  threshold.  When  he  came  out  again  he 
was  taken  to  see  the  Napoleonic  relics,  which 
lay  in  rows  in  their  glass  cases.  Two  of  them, 
the  great  sword  and  the  Grand  Cross  cordon  of 
the  Legion  of  Honor,  had  never  been  touched 
since  the  tune  of  Louis  Philippe.  As  Pershing 
and  Joffre  bent  over  them  General  Niox  came 
to  a  momentous  decision.  He  opened  the  cases 
and  handed  the  two  to  General  Pershing. 
France  could  do  no  more. 


«2  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

Pershing  held  them  for  a  moment  and  no- 
body spoke.  Then  he  handed  back  the  cordon, 
kissed  the  sword-hilt  and  presented  it,  and  in 
profound  silence  the  three  men  left  the  treasure 
hall. 

Between  this  visit  and  that  to  the  Chamber 
of  Deputies  there  were  many  official  calls,  in- 
cluding one  to  President  Poincare  at  the  Elysee 
Palace,  which  ended  in  a  formal  luncheon  to 
Pershing  by  President  and  Madame  Poincare, 
with  most  of  the  important  men  of  France  as 
fellow  guests. 

General  Pershing  was  recognized  as  he  en- 
tered the  gallery  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies, 
and  all  other  business  except  that  of  doing  him 
honor  was  promptly  put  by.  Full-throated 
cheering  began  and  would  not  die  down.  Fi- 
nally Premier  Ribot  commenced  to  speak,  and 
the  deputies  stopped  to  listen. 

"The  people  of  France  fully  understand  the 
deep  significance  of  the  arrival  of  General 
Pershing  in  France,"  he  said.  "It  is  one  of  the 
greatest  events  in  history  that  the  people  of 
the  United  States  should  come  here  to  struggle, 
not  in  the  spirit  of  ambition  or  conquest,  but 


"VIVE  PAIR-SHANG!"  23 

for  the  noble  ideals  of  justice  and  liberty.  The 
arrival  of  General  Pershing  is  a  new  message 
from  President  Wilson  which,  if  that  is  possible, 
surpasses  in  nobility  all  those  preceding  it.*' 

And  Viviani  said,  a  few  minutes  later:  "Presi- 
dent Wilson  holds  in  his  hand  all  the  historic 
grandeur  of  America,  which  he  now  puts  forth 
in  this  fraternal  union  extended  to  us  by  the 
Great  Republic." 

These  two  speeches  opened  a  flood-gate. 
Long  after  the  cheering  deputies  had  said  their 
good-bys  to  General  Pershing,  the  French  writ- 
ers, made  articulate  by  the  example  of  Ribot 
and  Viviani,  were  busily  preparing  appreciations 
and  commentaries  of  the  Pershing  arrival.  The 
most  picturesque  of  these  was  Maurice  de  Wa- 
leffe's,  in  Le  Journal:  "'There  are  no  longer 
any  Pyrenees,'  said  Louis  XIV,  when  he  mar- 
ried a  Spanish  princess.  'There  is  no  longer 
an  ocean,'  General  Pershing  might  say,  with 
greater  justice,  as  he  is  about  to  mingle  with 
ours  the  democratic  blood  of  his  soldiers.  The 
fusion  of  Europe  and  America  is  an  enormous 
fact  to  note." 

A  more  powerful  speech  was  that  of  Clemen- 


24  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

ceau,  now  Premier  of  France,  but  then  an  ear- 
nest private  citizen,  writing  for  his  paper. 
"Paris  has  given  its  finest  welcome  to  General 
Pershing,"  he  wrote.  "We  are  justified.  We 
are  justified  in  hoping  that  the  acclamation  of 
our  fellow  citizens,  with  whom  are  mingled 
crowds  of  soldiers  home  on  leave,  have  shown 
him  clearly,  right  at  the  start,  in  what  spirit  we 
are  waging  the  bloodiest  of  wars;  with  what  in- 
vincible determination,  never  to  falter  in  any 
fibre  of  our  nerves  or  muscles.  Unless  I  mis- 
judge America,  General  Pershing,  fully  conscious 
of  the  importance  of  his  mission,  has  received 
from  the  cordial  and  joyous  enthusiasm  of  the 
Parisians  that  kind  of  fraternal  encouragement 
which  is  never  superfluous,  even  when  one  needs 
it  not. 

"Let  him  have  no  doubt  that  he,  too,  has 
brought  encouragement  to  us,  the  whole  of 
France,  that  followed  with  its  eyes  the  whole  of 
his  passage  along  the  boulevards;  to  all  our 
hearts  that  salute  his  coming  with  joy  at  the 
supreme  grandeur  of  America's  might  enrolled 
under  the  standard  of  right. 

"This  idea  M.  Viviani,  just  back  from  Amer- 


"VIVE  PAIR-SHANG!"  25 

ica,  splendidly  developed  in  his  eloquent  speech 
to  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  in  the  presence  of 
General  Pershing. 

"General  Pershing  himself,  less  dramatic,  has 
given  us,  in  three  phrases  devoid  of  artificiality, 
an  impression  of  exceptionally  virile  force.  It 
was  no  rhetoric  but  the  pure  simplicity  of  the 
soldier  who  is  here  to  act,  and  who  fears  to 
promise  more  than  he  can  perform.  No  bad 
sign,  this,  for  those  of  us  who  have  grown  weary 
of  pompous  words,  when  we  must  pay  so  dearly 
for  each  failure  of  performance. 

"Not  long  ago  the  Germans  laughed  at  the 
*  contemptible  English  Army,'  and  we  hear  now 
that  they  regard  the  American  Army  as  'too 
ridiculous  for  words.'  Well,  the  British  have 
taught  even  Hindenburg  himself  what  virile 
force  can  do  toward  filling  gaps  in  organization. 
Now  the  arrival  of  Pershing  brings  Hindenburg 
news  that  the  Americans  are  setting  to  work  in 
their  turn — those  Americans  wrhose  performance 
in  the  War  of  Secession  showed  them  capable  of 
such  'improvisation  of  war'  as  the  world  had 
never  seen — and  I  think  the  Kaiser  must  be 
beginning  to  wonder  whether  he  has  not  trusted 


26  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

rather  blindly  in  his  'German  tribal  God.'  He 
has  loosed  the  lion  from  its  cage,  and  now  he 
finds  that  the  lion  has  teeth  and  claws  to  rend 
him. 

"The  Kaiser  had  given  us  but  a  few  weeks  in 
which  to  realize  that  the  success  of  his  sub- 
marine campaign  would  impose  the  silence  of 
terror  on  the  human  conscience  throughout 
the  world.  Well,  painful  as  he  must  find  it, 
Pershing's  arrival,  with  its  consequent  military 
action,  cannot  fail  to  prove  to  him  that,  after 
all,  the  moral  forces  he  ignored  must  always  be 
taken  into  account  in  forecasting  human  prob- 
abilities. Those  learned  Boches  have  yet  to 
understand  that  in  the  course  of  his  intellectual 
evolution,  man  has  achieved  the  setting  of 
moral  right  above  brute  force;  that  might  is 
taking  its  stand  beside  right,  to  accomplish  the 
greatest  revolution  in  the  history  of  mankind. 
That  is  the  lesson  which  Pershing's  coming  has 
taught  us,  and  that  is  why  we  rejoice." 

But  even  while  the  commentators  were  at 
their  task  General  Pershing  had  left  off  cele- 
brating and  got  to  work.  The  First  Division 
was  on  the  seas. 


"VIVE  PAIR-SHANG!"  27 

A  few  very  important  persons  in  France  and 
America  knew  where  they  were  to  land,  and 
when,  but  nobody  in  the  world  knew  just  what 
was  to  be  done  for  and  with  them  once  they 
landed,  for  the  plans  did  not  even  exist.  It 
was  the  business  of  the  general  and  his  staff  to 
create  them.  And  they  say  that  the  amount 
of  work  done  in  those  first  days  in  France  was 
incredible  even  to  them  when  they  looked  back 
on  it. 

As  a  first  step  American  headquarters  were 
installed  in  31  Rue  Constantine,  a  broad,  shaded 
street  near  the  Hotel  des  Invalides,  overlook- 
ing the  Champs  de  Mars.  The  house  had 
belonged  once  to  a  prodigiously  popular  Paris 
actress,  and  it  was  correspondingly  magnificent. 

But  the  magnificence,  except  that  which  was 
inalienably  in  space  and  structure,  was  banished 
by  the  busy  Americans.  In  the  hallway  they 
stretched  a  plank  railing,  behind  which  Ameri- 
can private  soldiers  asked  and  answered  ques- 
tions. Under  the  once  sumptuous  stairway 
there  were  stacks  of  army  cots.  The  walls 
were  bulletined  and  covered  with  directions 
carefully  done  in  two  languages.  The  chief  of 


28  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

the  Intelligence  Section  had  the  ex-dining-room, 
and  the  adjutant-general  had  the  ballroom  on 
the  second  floor.  Even  so,  it  was  not  long  be- 
fore this  spaciousness  was  insufficient,  and  the 
headquarters  brimmed  over  into  No.  27  as  well. 

It  was  in  these  two  houses  that  the  whole 
army  organization  was  plotted  out,  and  General 
Pershing  made  good  his  prediction  that  the 
Americans  would  not  merely  seem,  but  would 
be,  businesslike. 

After  ten  days  or  so  of  beaver-like  absorption 
in  their  jobs  the  American  headquarters  an- 
nounced to  the  war  correspondents  that  they 
must  take  a  certain  train  at  a  certain  hour, 
under  the  guidance  of  Major  Frederick  Palmer, 
press  officer  and  censor,  to  a  certain  port  in 
France.  There,  at  a  certain  moment,  they 
would  see  what  they  would  see. 


CHAPTER 
THE  FIRST  DIVISION  LANDS 


saw  the  gray  troop-ships  steaming 
-•-  majestically  into  the  middle  distance  from 
the  gray  of  the  open  sea,  with  the  little  con- 
voy fleet  alongside.  It  was  a  gray  morning, 
and  at  first  the  ships  were  hardly  more  than 
nebulous  patches  of  a  deeper  tone  than  sea 
and  sky.  As  they  neared  the  port,  and  took  on 
outline,  the  watchers  increased,  and  took  on 
internationalism. 

The  Americans,  who  had  come  to  see  this 
consequential  landing,  some  in  uniform  and 
some  civilians,  had  arrived  in  the  very  early 
morning,  before  the  inhabitants  of  the  little 
seaport  town  were  up  and  about,  let  alone  aware 
of  what  an  event  was  that  day  to  put  them  into 
the  history  books. 

But  it  never  takes  a  French  civilian  long  to 
discover  that  something  is  afoot  —  what  with 
three  years  of  big  happenings  to  sharpen  his 
wits  and  keep  him  on  the  lookout. 

29 


30  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

At  the  front  of  the  quay  were  Americans  two 
deep,  straining  to  make  out  the  incoming 
ships,  on  tiptoe  to  count  their  number,  breath- 
less to  shout  a  welcome  to  the  first  "Old  Glory" 
to  be  let  loose  to  the  harbor  winds.  Forming 
rapidly  behind  the  Americans  were  French 
men,  French  women,  and  French  children,  in- 
different to  affairs,  kitchens,  or  schools,  chatter- 
ing that  "Mais  surement,  c'  sont  les  Americains 
— regardez,  regardez !  .  .  ." 

Ignominiously  in  the  rear,  but  watching  too, 
were  the  German  prisoners  who  worked,  in 
theory  at  least,  at  transferring  rails  from  in- 
convenient places  to  convenient  ones  for  the 
loading  of  coaster  steamers.  They  said  little 
enough,  having  learned  that  a  respectful  hear- 
ing was  not  to  be  their  lot  for  a  while.  But 
they  moved  fewer  rails  than  ever,  and  nobody 
bothered  to  speed  them  up. 

The  great  ships  came  in  slowly.  Before 
long,  the  watchers  could  see  lines  of  dull  yellow 
banding  the  gray  hulks,  and  then  the  yellow 
lines  took  on  form  and  separateness,  and  were 
visible  one  soldier  at  a  time. 

Last,  one  ship  steamed  apart  from  the  others 


31 

and  made  direct  for  the  quay,  and  the  solemn 
business  of  landing  American  troops  on  French 
soil  was  about  to  begin. 

There  was  to  be  a  certain  ceremony  for  the 
landing,  but,  like  all  the  ceremonies  conceded 
to  these  great  occasions  by  the  American  Army, 
it  was  to  be  of  extreme  simplicity.  When  they 
were  near  enough  to  the  quay  to  be  heard, 
the  transport  band  played  "The  Star-Spangled 
Banner,"  while  all  the  soldiers  stood  at  salute, 
and  then  they  played  the  "Marseillaise,"  while 
everybody  on  ship  and  shore  stood  at  salute. 
With  that,  they  called  it  a  morning,  as  far  as 
celebration  was  concerned,  and  to  the  accom- 
paniment of  a  great  deal  of  talk  and  a  volley 
of  light-hearted  questions,  they  began  to  dis- 
embark. 

The  first  question,  called  from  some  distance 
away,  was:  "What  place  is  this?"  The  next 
was,  "Do  they  let  the  enlisted  men  drink  in 
the  saloons  over  here?"  and  there  was  a  mis- 
cellany about  apple  pie  and  doughnuts,  ciga- 
rettes, etc.  And  very  briefly  after  the  first 
soldiers  were  ashore  nothing  could  be  heard 
but  "Don't  they  speak  any  English  at  all?" 


32  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

The  outstanding  impression  of  that  morning 
may  be  what  it  will  to  the  French  civilians,  to 
the  American  newspaper  correspondents,  and 
to  the  officers  both  ashore  and  on  board.  To 
the  privates  of  the  First  Division  it  will  always 
be  the  incomprehensible  nonsense  that  goes  by 
the  name  of  the  French  language,  spoken  with 
perfect  assurance  by  people  old  enough  to  know 
better,  who  refuse  to  make  one  syllable  of  in- 
telligible sound  in  answer  to  even  the  simplest 
requests. 

The  privates  were  prepared  to  hear  the  French 
speak  their  own  language  at  mention  of  Alsace- 
Lorraine  and  war  aims,  or  to  propound  their 
private  philosophies  that  way.  They  granted 
the  right  of  the  French  to  talk  how  they  pleased 
of  their  emotional  pleasure  at  seeing  the  troops, 
or  of  any  other  subject  above  the  timber-line. 

What  staggered  them  was  the  insane  top- 
loftiness  of  using  French  to  ask  for  ham  and  eggs, 
and  beer,  or  the  way  to  camp.  For  nothing, 
not  volumes  of  warning  before  they  left  home, 
nor  interminable  hours  of  French-grammar  in- 
struction on  board  the  troop-ships,  had  really 
got  it  deep  inside  the  American  private's  head 


THE  FIRST  DIVISION  LANDS  33 

that  French  was  not  an  accomplishment  to  be 
used  as  evidence  of  cosmopolitan  culture,  but 
a  mere  prosy  necessity,  without  which  daily 
existence  was  a  nightmare  and  a  frustration. 

The  French,  on  their  side,  were  helpless 
enough,  but  not  so  bewildered.  They  had 
lived  too  long,  in  peace  as  well  as  war,  across 
a  narrow  channel  from  that  stanch  English- 
speaking  race  who  brought  both  their  tea  and 
their  language  with  them  to  France  and  every- 
where else,  to  be  dumfounded  that  strangers 
should  balk  at  their  foreign  tongue. 

The  inevitable  result  was  that  here,  in  their 
first  contact  with  the  French,  as  later,  through- 
out the  fighting  areas,  the  American  soldiers 
learned  to  understand  French-English  long  be- 
fore they  could  speak  a  decent  word  of  French. 

Fortunately  for  the  First  Division,  it  had 
had  some  able  bilingual  forerunners  at  the  sea- 
port town  where  they  landed.  The  camps 
had  been  built  by  the  French,  a  few  miles  back 
from  the  town,  but  a  few  of  the  housekeeping 
necessities  had  been  installed  by  General  Persh- 
ing's  staff-officers,  and  signs  in  good,  plain  Eng- 
lish showed  the  proper  roads.  And  as  the  single 


34  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

files  of  soldiers  began  to  descend  the  gang- 
plank of  the  first  transport,  and  to  form  for 
marching  to  camp,  their  own  officers  were  hav- 
ing some  compact  instruction  from  the  staff- 
officers  on  how  to  get  to  camp  and  what  to  do 
when  they  got  there. 

There  was  no  waste  motion  about  getting  the 
troops  under  way.  The  first  companies  wTere 
tramp-tramping  up  the  streets  before  the  last 
companies  were  overside,  and  the  first  transport 
was  free  to  go  back  and  give  place  to  the  next 
one  before  the  mayor  had  got  his  red  sash  and 
gilt  chains  in  place  and  arrived  to  do  them  suit- 
able honor. 

So,  while  the  shore  watchers  fell  back  into 
safe  observation-posts,  the  soldiers  clattered 
down  through  the  quay -sheds  to  the  little  street, 
formed  and  swung  away,  and  one  ship  after 
another  disgorged  its  passengers,  and  presently 
the  sheds  were  overrun  with  the  blue-clad  sailors 
from  the  convoys. 

All  that  day,  the  soldiers  marched  through  the 
town.  Their  camps  lay  at  the  end  of  a  long 
white  shore  road,  and  jobs  were  not  wanting 
when  they  got  there.  Their  pace  was  easy, 


THE  FIRST  DIVISION  LANDS  35 

because  of  these  things,  and  they  probably 
would  not  have  put  out  any  French  eye  with 
their  flawless  marching,  even  under  less  in- 
dulgent circumstances.  For  this  First  Division 
was  recruited  in  a  hurry,  and  most  of  their 
real  training  lay  ahead  of  them. 

Where  they  were  impressive  was  in  their 
composite  build.  There  were  little  fellows 
among  them,  but  they  straggled  at  the  back. 
The  major  part  of  the  soldiers  were  tall,  thin, 
rangy-looking,  with  a  march  that  was  more 
lope  than  anything  else  and  a  look  of  heaving 
their  packs  along  without  much  effort.  They 
fell  about  midway  between  the  thin,  breedy 
look  of  the  first  English  troops  in  France  and 
the  stocky,  thick-necked  sort  that  came  later. 

The  marines  were  the  pick  of  the  lot,  for  size 
and  behavior  too.  The  sense  of  being  some- 
thing special  was  with  the  marines  from  the 
first.  They  marched  that  way.  And,  set  apart 
by  their  olive  drab  as  well  as  by  their  size  and 
comportment,  they  gave  that  First  Division's 
first  march  hi  France  a  quality  of  real  distinction. 
And  when  the  army  got  to  its  first  French 
camps,  the  welcome  sight  its  eyes  first  fell 


36  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

upon  was  that  of  already  arrived  marines 
carrying  water  down  the  hill. 

The  camps  were  long  wooden  buildings, 
rather  above  the  average,  as  became  the  status 
of  the  visitors,  built  almost  at  the  top  of  a  hill, 
looking  down  over  green  fields  and  round  trees 
to  the  three  or  four  villages  within  range  of 
vision,  and  beyond  them  to  the  sea. 

Some  supplies  were  there  already,  but  the 
soldiers  had  had  to  bring  most  of  their  first 
supper,  and  the  camp-cooks  had  then*  own 
troubles  getting  things  just  so. 

Major-General  Sibert,  field  commander  of 
the  First  Division,  had  quarters  at  camp,  so 
that  excuses  were  not  in  order.  Even  for  that 
first  supper,  the  marines  and  all  others  they 
could  commandeer  to  help  them  were  rushing 
about  preparing  things  to  the  very  top  of  their 
bent.  Nobody  had  town-leave  for  the  first 
day  or  two,  till  things  were  in  apple-pie  order, 
and  the  camp  was  in  line  to  shelter  and  feed  its 
soldiers  for  as  long  as  it  should  be  necessary  to 
stay  there. 

If  camp  life  was  busy  these  days,  the  town 
life  was  no  less  so.  The  chief  hotel,  wherein 


THE  FIRST  DIVISION  LANDS  37 

much  red  plush  met  the  eye  from  the  very  en- 
trance, was  swarming  with  officers  of  both  na- 
tions and  all  degrees  of  rank.  General  Persh- 
ing  was  there,  with  his  aides  and  most  of  his 
staff.  Admirals  were  there,  changing  uniforms 
from  blue  to  white  and  back  again  as  the  erratic 
French  weather  dictated. 

There  were  half  a  dozen  high  officers  from  the 
French  Army,  making  both  formal  and  informal 
welcomes,  and  there  were  more  busy  majors 
and  captains  and  more  interpreters  than  you 
could  count  in  half  a  day's  tune. 

The  little  Frenchwoman  who  sat  behind  the 
desk  was  amiable  to  the  best  of  her  very  con- 
siderable ability,  but  the  questions  she  had  to 
answer,  whether  she  understood  them  or  not, 
would  have  addled  an  older  head  than  hers. 
She  could  run  her  hotel  with  the  best  of  them, 
but  when  perfectly  sane-looking  young  officers 
asked  her  where  to  buy  five  thousand  cups  and 
saucers,  and  paper  napkins  by  the  ton,  she 
said  in  so  many  words  that  an  American  invasion 
was  worse  than  bedlam. 

The  hotel's  second  floor  was  the  favored 
place  for  conferences.  There  a  fair  welter  of 


38  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

red  plush  was  drawn  up  around  a  big  table 
in  the  hallway,  and  livid  red  wall-paper  added 
its  warmth  to  a  scene  which  against  a  plank 
wall  would  not  have  lacked  color. 

At  this  table  General  Pershing  could  have 
been  found  much  of  the  time.  The  whole 
practical  liaison  of  French  and  American  Armies 
was  contrived  here,  though  the  first  rule  for 
this  consolidation  laid  down  by  a  grizzled  French 
general  with  but  one  arm  left,  was  that  "there 
was  no  longer  anything  that  was  French,  or 
anything  that  was  American,  but  merely  all  we 
had  that  was  'ours,'"  so  that  the  task  was  one 
of  detail  only. 

Though  the  daytimes  were  packed  with  work, 
most  of  the  officers  called  it  a  day  at  sunset. 
Then  the  little  hotel  took  on  its  most  engaging 
color.  The  little  French  piano  tinkled  out  in 
the  warm  air  with  an  accompaniment  of  many 
voices.  Once  a  very  blue  young  second  lieu- 
tenant chose  to  express  his  mood  by  repetitions 
without  number  of  the  melancholy  "Warum?" 
— probably  the  first  German  music  that  had  been 
heard  from  that  piano  for  many  a  moon.  Possi- 
bly those  of  the  French  who  knew  what  the  tune 


THE  FIRST  DIVISION  LANDS  39 

recognized  also  that  America  had  turned 
a  point  in  more  ways  than  one  in  coming  to 
France,  not  least  among  them  being  making 
good  American  soldiers  out  of  erstwhile  good 
Germans.  Nobody  seemed  much  astonished  or 
put  out  when  within  the  day  a  goodly  number 
of  American  soldiers  were  speaking  to  German 
prisoners  in  their  own  language,  though  talking 
to  the  German  prisoners,  aside  from  the  fact 
that  it  was  not  encouraged  by  the  French, 
turned  out  to  be  indifferent  fun,  since  the 
American  soldiers  had  had  their  fill  of  German 
propaganda  before  they  left  home,  and  none 
of  the  prisoners  was  overmodest  as  to  what 
Germany  was  or  would  do. 

The  cafes  out-of-doors  were  overflowing  with 
Americans,  too.  It  was  plenty  of  fun  to  hear 
the  sailors  scolding  the  French  waitresses  for 
calling  lemons  "limons,"  and  trying  to  over- 
haul the  French  pronunciation  of  "biere"  to 
something  approaching  a  compromise. 

An  officer  came  along  and  broke  up  a  crap- 
game.  The  soldiers  forgave  him,  but  the  civil- 
ians did  not.  It  was  their  first  go  at  the  game, 
and  they  wanted  a  lot  of  teaching. 


40  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

The  lone  bookstore  of  the  town  made  the 
only  known  effort  to  get  the  Americans  what 
they  asked  for,  instead  of  trying  to  prevail 
on  them  to  adopt  something  French.  They 
sent,  perhaps  to  Paris,  to  get  English  books, 
and  they  piled  their  windows  high  with  Ma- 
caulay's  "History  of  England"  and  Bacon's 
"Essays." 

The  paper-buying  habit  is  ingrown  in  the 
American  male.  He  has  three  newspapers  under 
his  arm  before  any  afternoon  is  what  it  should 
be.  And  so  the  soldiers  bought  the  French 
papers,  two  and  three  at  a  time,  and  carried 
them  around. 

Any  time  of  day  or  night,  a  look  out  into  the 
town's  main  street  descried  a  company  or  two 
of  soldiers,  on  their  way  from  camp  for  town- 
leave,  or  on  their  way  back.  They  marched 
continually.  The  motor-cycle  with  the  side- 
seat,  which  was  later  to  be  the  distinguishing 
mark  of  the  American  Army  hi  Paris,  made  its 
appearance  in  the  seaport  within  a  day  or  two 
of  the  first  transport's  landing,  and  eased  the 
burdens  of  the  French  motor-lorries  with  which 
the  American  supplies  had  been  taken  to  camp, 


THE  FIRST  DIVISION  LANDS  41 

owing  to  a  delay  of  the  First  Division's  own 
lorries,  on  a  slow  ship. 

And  most  successful  sensation  of  all,  the  army 
mule.  The  French  knew  him  slightly,  because 
their  own  army  used  him  on  occasion.  But 
no  Frenchman  could  speak  to  a  mule  in  his  own 
language  as  these  big  mule-tenders  did. 

It  was  exalting  to  watch  the  army  on  the 
march,  to  see  the  marines  and  the  profusion 
of  slim  sailors.  But  the  real  crowd  always 
gathered  around  the  big  negro  stevedores  in 
long  navy-blue  coats,  scarlet-lined,  with  brass 
buttons  all  the  way  up  the  front,  over  and  down 
the  back — likely  a  thrifty  hand-me-down  from 
pre-khaki  days — who  marched  with  perfect 
knowledge  of  their  magnificence. 

The  stevedores,  for  their  part,  were  as  amazed 
as  the  French,  though  on  a  different  score. 
They  accepted  with  due  resignation  the  fact 
that  the  French  spoke  French.  It  was  when 
they  first  saw  a  Senegalese  in  French  uniform, 
triple-black  with  tropic  suns,  but  to  them  a 
mere  one  of  themselves,  and  when  they  hailed 
him  gladly  in  their  English  tongue,  to  ask 
which  road  to  take,  that  his  indecipherable 


42  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

French  answer  broke  them,  heart  and  spirit 
alike. 

"Dat  one  blame  stuck-up  nigger,"  said  the 
spokesman,  as  they  trudged  their  way  onward, 
none  the  wiser  if  the  Senegalese,  in  his  turn,  had 
been  rebuking  them  in  French  for  showing  off 
then*  English. 

So,  in  its  several  aspects,  the  First  Division 
made  its  impact  upon  France,  jostled  itself  a 
little  and  the  French  more,  and  finally  settled 
down  to  its  short  wait  at  the  coast  before  going 
inland,  "within  sound  of  the  guns,"  to  get  its 
training. 

And  because  the  camps  were  to  be  used  many 
times  again  by  other  divisions  to  come  on  the 
"bridge  of  ships,"  the  first  had  to  put  in  some 
extra  licks  to  make  their  camp  conveniences 
permanent. 

They  played  a  few  baseball-games,  and  they 
were  encouraged  to  do  a  lot  of  swimming,  in 
the  off  afternoon  hours.  After  a  bit  town-leave 
was  heavily  curtailed,  but  there  was  a  dispen- 
sation now  and  then  for  a  "movie."  In  the 
main  they  kept  their  noses  to  the  grindstone. 

After  a  little  while  the  men  who  were  to 


THE  FIRST  DIVISION  LANDS  43 

march  in  Paris  on  the  Fourth  of  July  were 
selected,  and,  preceded  by  a  few  sailors  with 
fewer  duties  and  longer  indulgences,  they  en- 
trained on  the  late  afternoon  of  July  2.  There 
was  no  measuring  the  disappointment  of  the 
ones  who  were  left  behind,  for  the  prediction 
that  there  would  be  doings  in  Paris  on  the  first 
French  Fourth  of  July  was  to  be  fulfilled  to 
the  letter. 

But  the  housekeepers  of  the  army  could  not 
be  spared  for  celebrations.  As  soon  as  the 
marines  could  be  despatched  from  the  seaport 
they  were  sent  direct  across  France  to  the 
points  behind  the  lines  where  their  training- 
camps  were  in  waiting,  and  there,  within  a  few 
weeks,  the  First  Division  reassembled  and  fell 
to  work. 

Meanwhile,  of  the  doings  in  Paris 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  FOURTH  OF  JULY 

^  I^HE  first  they  knew  of  it  in  Paris — barring 
•••  vague  promises  of  "something  to  remem- 
ber" on  the  American  fete  that  had  appeared 
in  modest  items  in  the  newspapers — was  when  a 
motor-bus,  jammed  to  the  guards  with  Ameri- 
can soldiers,  suddenly  rolled  into  the  Avenue 
de  1'Opera  from  the  Tuileries  Gardens,  and  pa- 
raded up  that  august  thoroughfare  to  the  tune 
of  incredible  yelling  from  everybody  on  board. 
It  was  the  afternoon  of  July  3. 

A  few  picked  Americans  had  known  about 
it.  A  sufficient  number  of  American  and  French 
officers  and  the  newspaper  correspondents  had 
been  told  to  appear  at  Austerlitz  Station  in  the 
early  morning  of  the  3d,  and  there  they  had 
seen  the  soldiers  not  merely  arrive  but  tackle 
their  first  continental  breakfast. 

Neither  was  a  sensation  to  be  sneezed  at. 
The  soldiers  were  of  the  very  finest,  and  in 

44 


THE  FOURTH  OF  JULY  45 

spite  of  their  overnight  journey  they  were  all 
looking  fit.  They  were  anxious  to  fall  right 
out  of  the  train  into  the  middle  of  Paris.  To 
most  of  them  it  was  a  city  of  gallant  and  de- 
lightful scandal,  filled  even  in  war-time  with 
that  twinkle  of  gayety  plus  wickedness  that  is 
so  intriguing  when  told  about  in  Oscaloosa,  be- 
hind the  hand  or  the  door.  They  said  outright 
that  they  expected  to  see  the  post-cards  all 
come  to  life  when  they  set  eyes  first  on  Paris 
streets. 

But  even  if  Paris  had  had  these  fascinations 
in  store,  they  were  not  for  the  soldiers  that 
morning.  Instead  military  precision,  discipline, 
an  orderly  march  to  near-by  barracks,  and — a 
French  breakfast:  coffee  and  war-bread.  Not 
even  the  French  had  a  kind  word  for  the  war- 
bread,  and  no  American  ever  spoke  well  of  the 
coffee.  But  there  it  was — chronologically  in 
order,  and  haply  the  worst  of  a  Paris  visit  all 
over  at  once. 

And  most  of  the  soldiers  stayed  right  in  bar- 
racks till  it  was  time  for  the  great  processional 
the  next  day.  It  was  a  picked  bunch  that  had 
the  motor  ride  and  informed  Paris  that  they 


46  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

had  come  for  a  party.  And  if  they  didn't  see 
the  ladies  with  the  unbehaving  eyes,  they  did 
see  the  Louvre  and  the  Tuileries,  the  Opera, 
the  boulevards,  and  the  Madeleine.  And  Paris 
saw  the  soldiers. 

There  was  no  end  of  cheering  and  handclap- 
ping.  The  American  flags  that  had  been  flying 
for  Pershing  were  brought  out  again,  and  ven- 
ders appeared  on  the  streets  with  all  manner  of 
emblems  to  sell.  It  was  one  of  those  cheerful 
afternoons  when  good  feeling  expresses  itself 
gently,  reserving  its  hurrahs  for  the  coming 
event. 

The  soldiers  were  kept  on  the  cars,  but  now 
and  then  a  good  Parisian  threw  them  a  package 
of  cigarettes  or  a  flower.  All  told,  they  touched 
off  the  fuse  timed  to  explode  on  the  morrow, 
and,  having  done  that,  went  back  to  barracks. 

The  first  "Fourth"  in  Paris  was  a  thoroughly 
whole-souled  celebration.  The  French  began  it, 
civilians  and  soldiers,  by  taking  a  band  around 
to  serenade  General  Pershing  the  first  thing  in 
the  morning.  His  house  was  on  the  left  bank 
of  the  Seine,  not  far  from  American  headquar- 
ters in  the  Rue  Constantine,  an  historic  old 


THE  FOURTH  OF  JULY  47 

place  with  little  stone  balconies  outside  the 
upper  windows. 

On  one  of  these  General  Pershing  appeared, 
with  the  first  notes  of  the  band.  He  was  cheered 
and  cheered  again.  A  little  boy  who  had  some- 
how climbed  to  the  top  of  a  gas  street-lamp 
squealed  boastfully  to  Pershing:  "See,  I  am  an 
American,  too,  for  I  have  a  sky-scraper ! "  (J'ai 
un  gratte-ciel !)  And  with  a  wave  of  his  hand 
General  Pershing  acknowledged  his  compatriot. 

It  was  in  this  crowd  around  Pershing's  house 
that  a  riot  started,  because  a  man  who  was 
being  unpleasantly  jostled  said:  "Oh,  do  leave 
me  in  peace."  Those  nearest  him  good-na- 
turedly tried  to  give  him  elbow-room,  but  those 
a  little  distance  away  caught  merely  the  "peace" 
of  his  ejaculation  and,  with  sudden  loud  cries 
of  "kill  the  pacifist,"  made  for  the  unfortunate, 
and  pommelled  him  roundly  before  the  matter 
could  be  explained. 

After  the  serenade  and  General  Pershing's 
little  speech  of  thanks  the  band,  with  most  of 
the  crowd  following,  marched  over  to  des  In- 
valides,  the  appointed  place  for  the  formal 
ceremony. 


48  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

Around  the  ancient  hotel,  overflowing  into 
the  broad  boulevards  that  radiate  from  it,  and 
packing  to  suffocation  the  Champs  de  Mars  in 
front  of  it,  there  were  just  as  many  Frenchmen 
as  could  stand  shoulder  to  shoulder  and  chin  to 
back.  Inside,  where  there  were  speeches  and 
exchanges  of  national  emblems,  the  crowd  was 
equally  dense,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  only  the 
very  important  or  the  very  cunning  had  cards 
of  admission. 

The  real  Fourth  celebration  was  in  the  streets. 
The  waiting  crowds  yelled  thunderously  when 
the  first  band  appeared,  heralding  the  parade. 
Then  came  the  Territorials,  the  escort  troops,  in 
their  familiar  horizon-blue.  Then  more  bands, 
then  officers,  mounted  and  in  motor-cars,  and, 
finally,  the  Americans,  manifestly  having  the 
proudest  moment  of  their  lives. 

They  were  to  march  from  des  Invalides  to 
Picpus  Cemetery,  the  little  private  cemetery 
outside  of  Paris,  where  the  Marquis  de  Lafay- 
ette is  buried. 

They  crossed  Solferino  bridge,  and  made  their 
way  through  a  terrific  crowd  in  the  broad  Place 
de  la  Concorde.  The  Paris  newspapers,  boast- 


THE  FOURTH  OF  JULY  49 

ing  of  their  conservatism,  said  there  were  easily 
one  million  Parisians  that  day  within  sight  of 
des  Invalides  when  the  American  soldiers  left 
the  building  and  started  on  their  march. 

To  hear  the  soldiers  tell  it,  there  were  easily 
one  million  Parisians,  all  under  the  age  of  ten, 
immediately  under  their  feet  before  they  had 
marched  a  mile. 

From  a  balcony  of  the  Hotel  Crillon,  on  the 
north  side  of  the  Place  de  la  Concorde,  the 
marching  Americans  were  wholly  lost  to  view 
from  the  waist  down.  Nobody  could  ever 
complain  of  the  French  birth-rate  after  seeing 
that  parade.  Nobody  ever  saw  that  many 
children  before  in  any  one  assemblage  in  France. 
It  was  prodigious. 

And  the  French  youngsters  had  their  own 
notions  of  how  they  were  to  take  part  in  that 
French  Fourth  of  July.  The  main  notion 
was  to  walk  between  the  soldiers'  legs.  They 
were  massed  thick  beside  the  soldiers,  thick 
between  them,  impeding  their  knee  action, 
terrorizing  their  steps.  At  a  little  distance, 
they  looked  like  batter  in  a  waffle-pan.  But 
they  did  what  they  could  to  make  the  American 


50  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

soldiers  feel  among  friends  that  day,  and  no- 
body could  say  they  failed. 

The  parade  turned  along  the  picturesque  old 
Rue  de  Rivoli  on  leaving  the  Place  de  la  Con- 
corde, and  filed  along  the  river,  almost  the  length 
of  the  city.  They  had  not  gone  far  before  the 
Frenchwomen  had  thrown  them  enough  roses 
to  decorate  bayonets  and  hats  and  a  few  lapels. 
They  made  a  brave  sight,  brave  to  nobility. 
And  though  they  were  harassed  by  the  eager 
children,  abashed  by  the  women,  and  touched 
to  genuine  emotion  by  the  whole  city,  they 
wouldn't  have  grudged  five  years  of  their  lives 
for  the  privilege  of  being  there. 

At  Picpus,  the  scene  made  up  in  intensive- 
ness  what  it  lacked  in  breadth,  for  the  cemetery 
is  far  too  small  to  permit  of  a  crowd  of  size. 
A  home  for  aged  gentlewomen  overlooks  one 
wall  ...  its  windows  were  filled,  and  their 
occupants  proved  that  Frenchwomen  are  never 
too  old  or  too  gentle  to  throw  roses.  A  military 
hospital  overlooks  another  side,  and  balconies 
and  windows  were  crowded  with  "blesses." 
The  few  officers  and  civilians  who  had  access 
to  the  cemetery-grounds  made  their  com- 


THE  FOURTH  OF  JULY  51 

memoration  brief  and  simple.  It  was  there 
that  Colonel  Stanton  made  the  little  speech 
which  buzzed  around  the  Allied  world  within 
the  day:  "Lafayette,  nous  voil£  !" — "Lafayette, 
we're  here!"  Its  felicity  of  phrase  moved  the 
French  scribes  to  columns  of  congratulation. 
Its  compactness  won  the  Americans.  Every- 
body said  it  was  the  best  war  speech  made  in 
France,  and  it  was. 

After  Picpus,  the  officers  came  back  to  the 
city  for  work,  and  the  soldiers  went  to  barracks. 
The  sailors  were  allowed  to  saunter  about  the 
city,  in  vain  search  for  the  post-card  ladies  and 
the  flying  champagne  corks.  The  soldiers  were 
on  a  sterner  regime. 

Early  on  the  morning  of  the  5th,  they  were 
eastward  bound,  to  join  the  rest  of  the  First 
Division  for  training,  and  Paris  saw  the  last  of 
the  American  soldiers. 

A  few  had  leave,  within  the  next  few  months, 
from  engineering  corps  and  base  hospitals. 
But  the  infantrymen  and  the  marines  were 
over  learning  lessons  in  the  war  of  trench  and 
bayonet,  and  by  Christmas  even  the  scatter- 
ing leaves  from  behind  the  lines  were  discon- 


52  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

tinued,  and  Americans  on  holiday  bent  were 
sent  to  Aix-les-Bains.  Even  officers  had  little 
or  no  Paris  leave,  and  those  who  had  been 
quartered  in  Paris,  in  the  Rue  Constantine  and 
the  Rue  Sainte-Anne,  were  collected  at  the  new 
American  headquarters,  southeast  of  Paris. 
The  American  uniform  all  but  vanished  off  the 
Paris  streets.  The  French  national  holiday, 
ten  days  after  the  American,  had  no  American 
contingent. 

So  Paris  and  the  American  Army  had  a  quick 
acquaintance,  a  brilliant  one  and  a  brief  one.  It 
was  mainly  between  the  beginning  and  the  end 
of  that  Fourth  of  July.  It  will  quite  probably 
not  be  renewed  till  the  end  of  the  war.  Lucky 
the  onlooker  who  sees  the  reunion.  For  then 
it  may  be  wagered  that  there  will  be  gayety 
enough  to  answer  the  needs  of  even  the  most 
post-card-haunted  soldier. 

But  to  get  on  to  the  training-camps 


CHAPTER  V 
WHAT  THEY  LIVED  IN 

THE  American  training-camp  area  spread 
over  many  miles  and  through  many  vil- 
lages. It  had  boundaries  only  in  theory,  be- 
cause all  its  sides  were  ready  to  swing  farther 
north,  east,  south,  and  west  at  a  day's  notice, 
whenever  the  Expeditionary  Force  should  be- 
come army  enough  to  require  it. 

But  its  focus  was  in  the  Vosges,  in  the  six  or 
seven  villages  set  apart  from  the  beginning  for 
the  Americans,  and  as  such,  overhauled  by  those 
first  marines  and  quartermaster's  assistants  who 
left  the  coast  in  early  July  and  moved  camp- 
ward. 

This  overhauling  brought  the  end  of  the 
Franco- American  honeymoon.  Later,  amity 
was  to  be  re-established,  but  when  the  first 
marine  ordered  the  first  manure-pile  out  of  the 
first  front  yard,  a  breach  began  which  it  took 

long  months  to  heal. 

18 


54  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

There  were  few  barracks  in  the  Vosges.  The 
soldiers  were  to  be  billeted  with  the  peasants. 
And  the  marines  said  the  peasants  had  to  clean 
up  and  air,  and  the  peasants  said  the  marines 
were  insane. 

Those  first  days  at  training-camp,  before  the 
body  of  the  troops  arrived,  were  circus  enough 
for  anybody. 

Six  villages  were  to  be  got  ready,  the  officers 
to  have  the  pick  of  places,  and  the  privates  to 
have  next  best.  And  the  choice  of  assignments 
for  officers  was  still  so  far  from  ideal  as  to  make 
the  house-cleaning  a  thorough  job  all  around. 

The  marines  had  a  village  to  themselves, 
the  farthest  from  the  inspection-grounds.  The 
correspondents  had  a  village  to  themselves, 
too,  though  it  wasn't  because  there  was  any 
excess  of  regard  for  the  importance  of  the  cor- 
respondents among  the  men  who  laid  out  the 
grounds.  They  were  put  where  they  could  do 
the  least  harm,  and  where  their  confusing  ap- 
pearance, in  Sam  Brown  belts  and  other  officer- 
like  insignia,  would  not  exact  too  many  wasted 
salutes. 

General  Headquarters  was  still  in  Paris  at 


WHAT  THEY  LIVED  IN  55 

this  time,  but  General  Sibert  had  Field  Head- 
quarters at  camp,  and  though  his  assignment 
was  relatively  stylish,  it  could  not  have  been 
said  to  offend  him  with  its  luxury. 

He  lived  and  worked  in  a  little  frame  build- 
ing in  the  main  street  of  the  central  village, 
which  had  probably  once  been  a  hotel. 

It  was  to  be  recognized  by  the  four  soldiers 
always  at  attention  outside  it,  whenever  motors 
or  pedestrians  passed  that  way.  Two  of  the 
soldiers  were  American  and  two  were  French. 

Although  all  the  American  training-camp 
area  became  America  as  to  jurisdiction,  as  soon 
as  the  troops  moved  there,  the  French  soldiers 
were  always  present  around  headquarters,  partly 
to  help  and  partly  to  register  politeness. 

Inside  Field  Headquarters,  the  little  bare 
wooden  rooms  were  stripped  of  their  few  bat- 
tered vases  and  old  chromos,  and  plain  wooden 
tables  and  chairs  were  set  about.  The  marines 
opened  the  windows,  and  scrubbed  up  the  floors, 
and  hung  out  the  sign  of  "Business  as  usual," 
and  General  Sibert  moved  in. 

The  rest  was  not  so  easy.  The  various  kitch- 
ens came  in  first  for  attention.  For  many 


56  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

days  French  and  American  motor-lorries  had 
been  trundling  across  France,  storing  the  ware- 
houses with  heaping  piles  of  food-supplies. 
The  procession  practically  never  stopped. 
Trains  brought  what  could  be  put  aboard  them, 
but  it  was  to  motors  that  most  of  the  real 
work  fell.  So  the  thin,  long  line  of  loaded  cars 
stretched  endlessly  from  coast  to  camp,  and 
finally  everything  was  attended  to  but  where 
to  put  the  food  and  where  to  cook  it. 

The  houses  with  the  good  back  sheds  were 
picked  for  kitchens,  and  the  big  army  soup- 
kettles  were  bricked  into  place,  and  what  passed 
for  ovens  were  provided  for  the  bakers. 

For  bathing  facilities,  there  were  neat  paths 
marked  to  the  river.  That  is,  the  French 
called  it  a  river.  Every  American  who  rides 
through  France  for  the  first  time  has  the  same 
experience:  he  looks  out  of  his  train-window  and 
remarks  to  his  companion,  who  knows  France 
well:  "Isn't  that  a  pretty  little  creek?  Are 
there  many  springs  about  here?"  And  the 
companion  replies  scornfully:  "That  isn't  a 
creek — that's  the  Marne  River,"  or  "That's 
the  Aisne,"  or  "That's  the  Meuse."  The 


WHAT  THEY  LIVED  IN  57 

American  always  wonders  what  the  French 
would  call  the  Hudson. 

It  was  one  of  these  storied  streams  that  ran 
through  the  American  training-camp,  in  which 
the  Americans  did  their  bathing.  Whenever  a 
soldier  wanted  to  get  his  head  wet  he  waded 
across. 

Later,  when  the  camps  were  filled,  these  river- 
banks  were  to  offer  a  remarkable  sight  to  the 
French  peasants,  who  thought  all  Americans 
were  bathing-mad  anyway.  Hundreds  of  sol' 
diers,  in  the  assorted  postures  of  men  scrubbing 
backs  and  knees  and  elbows,  disported  with 
soap  and  wash-cloth  along  the  banks.  Hun- 
dreds of  others,  swimming  their  suds  off,  flashed 
here  an  arm  and  there  a  leg  in  the  stream  itself. 
It  did  not  take  much  distance  to  make  them 
look  like  figures  on  a  frieze,  a  new  Olympic 
group.  Modesty  knew  them  not,  but  there  were 
not  supposed  to  be  women  about,  and  the  peas- 
ants had  a  nice  Japanese  point  of  view  in  the 
matter.  At  any  rate,  there  was  the  training- 
camp  bathtub,  and  they  used  it  at  least  once 
a  day,  to  the  unending  stupefaction  of  the 
French. 


58  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

Where  they  slept  was  another  matter,  sug- 
gesting neither  Corot  nor  Phidias. 

The  privates  had  houses  first,  then  barns. 
The  barns  were  freed  of  the  live  stock,  which 
was  turned  into  meadows  to  graze,  and  the 
floors  were  dug  down  to  clean  earth,  and  vast 
quantities  of  formaldehyde  were  sprayed  around. 
Then  the  cots  were  carried  up  to  the  second 
floors  of  the  barns  and  put  along  in  tidy  rows. 
At  the  foot  of  each  soldier's  bed  was  whatever 
manner  of  small  wooden  box  he  could  corral 
from  the  quartermaster,  and  there  he  kept  all 
he  owned.  His  pack  unfolded  its  contents  into 
the  box,  and  his  comfort-kit  perched  on  the  top. 
And  there  he  kept  the  little  mess  of  treasures  he 
bought  from  the  gypsy  wagons  that  rode  all 
day  around  the  outskirts  of  the  camp. 

Windows  were  knocked  out,  just  under  the 
eaves,  for  the  fresh  air  that  seemed,  so  inexpli- 
cably to  the  French,  so  essential  to  the  Ameri- 
cans. 

Even  with  the  First  Division,  acknowledged 
to  be  about  the  smallest  expeditionary  force 
known  to  the  Great  War,  the  soldiers  averaged 
a  little  over  two  thousand  to  the  village,  and 


WHAT  THEY  LIVED   IN  59 

since  not  one  of  the  villages  had  more  than  four 
or  five  hundred  population  in  peace-times,  the 
troubles  of  the  man  who  arranged  the  billets 
were  far  from  light. 

Fortunately,  the  First  Division  did  not  ask 
for  luxuries.  Even  the  officers  spent  more  time 
in  simplifying  their  quarters  than  in  trimming 
them  up.  The  colonel  of  one  regiment — one  of 
those  who  became  major-generals  soon  after 
the  arrival  in  France — had  his  quarters  in  an 
aristocratic  old  house,  set  back  in  a  long  yard, 
where  plum-trees  dropped  their  red  fruit  in  the 
vivid  green  grass  and  roses  overgrew  their  con- 
fines— it  was  the  sort  of  house  before  which  the 
pre-war  motor  tourists  used  to  stop  and  breathe 
long  "ohs"  of  satisfaction. 

The  entrance  was  by  a  low,  arched  doorway. 
The  hall  was  built  of  beautifully  grained  woods, 
old  and  mellow  of  tone.  The  stairway  was 
broad  and  easy  to  climb.  The  colonel  had  the 
second  floor  front,  just  level  with  the  tree-tops. 

In  the  room  there  were  rich  woods  and  tapes- 
tried walls,  and  at  the  back  was  a  four-poster 
mahogany  bed  with  heavy  satin  hangings,  bro- 
caded with  fleur-de-lis.  The  Pompadour  would 


60  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

have  been  entirely  nappy  there.  But  the 
American  colonel  had  done  things  to  it — things 
that  would  have  popped  the  eyes  out  of  the 
Pompadour's  head.  He  pinned  up  the  four- 
poster  hangings  with  a  safety-pin,  that  being 
the  only  way  he  could  convey  to  his  amiable 
little  French  servant-girl  that  he  didn't  want 
that  bed  turned  down  for  him  of  nights.  And 
he  had  taken  all  the  satin  hangings  down  from 
the  windows.  Under  these  windows  he  had 
drawn  up  a  little  board  table  and  an  army  cot. 
Beside  the  table  was  his  little  army  trunk. 
The  space  he  used  did  not  measure  more  than 
ten  feet  in  any  direction,  and  his  luxuries  waited 
unmolested  for  some  more  sybaritic  soul  than  he. 
A  major  in  that  same  village  who  had  had  a 
cavalry  command  before  the  cavalry,  as  he  put 
it,  became  "mere  messengers,"  picked  his  quar- 
ters out  himself,  on  the  strength  of  all  he  had 
heard  about  "Sunny  France."  His  house  was 
nothing  much,  but  behind  it  was  a  garden — a 
long  garden,  filled  with  vegetables,  decorated 
with  roses,  shaded  by  fruit-trees.  At  the  far 
end  of  the  garden  was  a  summer-house,  in  a 
circle  of  trees.  Here  the  major  took  his  first 


WHAT  THEY  LIVED  IN  61 

guests  and  showed  how  he  intended  to  do  his 
work  in  the  open  air,  while  the  famous  French 
sunshine  flooded  his  garden  and  warmed  his 
little  refuge. 

The  one  thing  it  will  never  be  safe  to  say  to 
any  veteran  of  the  First  Division  is  "Sunny 
France."  The  summer  of  1917,  after  a  blazing 
start  in  June,  settled  down  to  drizzle  and  mist, 
cold  and  fog,  rain  that  soaked  to  the  marrow. 

The  major  with  the  garden  sloshed  around 
the  whole  summer,  visiting  men  who  had  set- 
tled indoors  and  had  fireplaces.  By  the  time 
the  warmth  had  come  back  to  his  summer-house 
it  was  time  for  him  to  go  up  to  the  battle-line, 
and  the  man  who  writes  a  history  of  the  billets 
in  France  will  get  a  lot  of  help  from  him. 

Some  of  the  makeshifts  of  this  first  invasion 
were  excusable  and  inevitable.  Some  were  not. 
After  the  first  two  or  three  weeks  of  settling  in, 
General  Pershing  made  a  tour  of  inspection, 
and  some  of  the  things  he  said  about  what  he 
saw  didn't  make  good  listening.  But  after  that 
visit  all  possible  defects  were  overcome,  and 
the  men  slept  well,  ate  well,  were  as  well  clothed 
as  possible,  and  were  admirably  sanitated. 


62  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

The  drinking-water  was  a  matter  for  the 
greatest  strictness.  The  French  never  drink 
water  on  any  provocation,  so  that  water  provi- 
sions began  from  the  ground  up. 

It  was  drawn  into  great  skins  and  hung  on 
tripods  in  the  shaded  parts  of  the  billets,  and  it 
was  then  treated  with  a  germicide,  tasteless 
fortunately,  carried  in  little  glass  capsules. 
This  was  a  legacy  from  experiences  hi  Panama. 

Each  man  had  his  own  tin  cup,  and  when  he 
got  thirsty  he  went  down  and  turned  the  faucet 
in  the  hanging  skin  tank.  If  he  drank  any 
other  water  he  repented  in  the  guard-house. 

So,  though  the  billets  were  rude  and  some- 
times uncomfortable,  the  soldiers  did  stay  in 
them  and  out  of  the  hospitals. 

And  there  were  compensations. 

Half  of  these  were  in  play-times,  and  half  in 
work-tunes.  The  training,  slow  at  first,  speeded 
up  afterward  and,  with  the  help  of  the  "Blue 
Devils"  who  trained  with  the  Americans,  took 
on  all  the  exhilaration  of  war  with  none  of  its 
dangers.  But  how  they  trained  doesn't  belong 
in  a  chapter  on  billets.  How  they  played  is 
more  suitable. 


WHAT  THEY  LIVED  IN  63 

Three-fourths  of  their  playing  they  did  with 
the  French  children.  The  insurmountable 
French  language,  which  kept  doughboys  and 
poilus  at  arm's  length  in  spite  of  their  best  in- 
dentions, broke  down  with  the  youngsters. 

It  was  one  of  the  finest  sights  around  the 
camp  to  see  the  big  soldiers  collecting  around 
the  mess-tent  after  supper,  in  the  daylight- 
saving  long  twilight,  to  hear  the  band  and  play 
in  pantomime  with  the  hundreds  of  children 
who  tagged  constantly  after  them. 

The  band  concerts  were  a  regular  evening 
affair,  though  musically  they  didn't  come  to 
much.  Those  were  the  days  before  anybody 
had  thought  to  supply  the  army  bands  with 
new  music,  so  "She's  My  Daisy"  and  "The 
Washington  Post"  made  a  daily  appearance. 

But  the  concerts  did  not  want  for  atten- 
dance. The  soldiers  stood  around  by  the  hun- 
dreds, and  listened  and  looked  off  over  the 
hills  to  where  the  guns  were  rumbling,  when- 
ever the  children  were  not  exacting  too  much 
attention. 

This  child-soldier  combination  had  just  two 
words.  The  child  said  "Hello,"  which  was  all 


64  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

his  English,  and  the  party  lasted  till  the  soldier, 
billet-bound,  said  "Fee-neesh,"  which  was  all 
his  French.  But  nobody  could  deny  that  both 
of  them  had  a  good  time. 

Letter-writing  was  another  favorite  sport 
with  the  First  Division,  to  the  great  dole  of  the 
censors.  Of  course  the  men  were  homesick. 
That  was  one  reason.  The  other  was  that  they 
had  left  home  as  heroes,  and  they  didn't  intend 
to  let  the  glory  lapse  merely  because  they  had 
come  across  to  France  and  been  slapped  into 
school.  The  censors  were  astounded  by  what 
they  read  .  .  .  gory  battles  of  the  day  before, 
terrific  air-raids,  bombardments  of  camp,  etc. 
Some  of  the  men  told  how  they  had  slaughtered 
Germans  with  their  bare  hands.  Most  of  the 
letters  were  adjudged  harmless,  and  of  little  aid 
or  comfort  to  the  enemy,  so  they  were  passed 
through.  But  some  of  the  families  of  the  First 
Division  must  have  thought  that  the  War 
Department  was  holding  out  an  awful  lot  on 
the  American  public. 

Mid-July  saw  the  camp  in  fair  working  order. 
The  First  Division  had  word  that  it  was  pres- 
ently to  be  joined  by  the  New  England  Division 


WHAT  THEY  LIVED   IN  65 

and  the  Rainbow  Division,  both  National 
Guardsmen,  and  representative  of  every  State. 

American  participation  began  to  take  shape 
as  a  real  factor,  a  stern  and  sombre  business, 
and  all  the  lighter,  easier  sides  of  the  expedi- 
tion began  to  fall  back,  and  work  and  grimness 
came  on  together. 

The  French  Alpine  Chasseurs — whom  the 
Americans  promptly  called  "chasers" — had  a 
party  with  the  Americans  on  July  14,  when 
the  whole  day  was  given  over  to  a  picnic,  with 
boxing,  wrestling,  track  sports,  and  a  lot  of  food. 
That  was  the  last  party  in  the  training-camp 
till  Christmas. 

The  work  that  began  then  had  no  let-up  till 
the  first  three  battalions  went  into  the  trenches 
late  in  October.  The  steadily  increasing  num- 
ber of  men  widened  the  area  of  the  training- 
camp,  but  they  made  no  difference  in  the  con- 
tents of  the  working-day,  nor  in  the  system  by 
which  it  proceeded. 

Within  the  three  weeks  after  the  First  Division 
had  landed,  the  work  of  army-building  began. 


CHAPTER  VI 
GETTING  THEIR  STRIDE 

THAT  part  of  France  which  became  America 
in  July,  1917,  was  of  about  the  shape  of 
a  long-handled  tennis-racket.  The  broad  oval 
was  lying  just  behind  the  fighting-lines.  The 
handle  reached  back  to  the  sea.  Then,  to  the 
ruin  of  the  simile,  the  artillery-schools,  the  avi- 
ation-fields, and  the  base  hospitals  made  excres- 
cences on  the  handle,  so  that  an  apter  symbol 
would  be  a  large  and  unshapely  string  of 
beads. 

But  France  lends  itself  to  pretty  exact  plotting 
out.  There  are  no  lakes  or  mountains  to  dodge, 
nor  particularly  big  cities  to  edge  over  to.  In 
the  main,  the  organizing  staffs  of  the  two  na- 
tions could  draw  lines  from  the  coast  to  the 
battle-fields,  and  say:  "Between  these  two  shall 
America  have  her  habitation  and  her  name." 

The  infantry  trained  in  the  Vosges.  The 
artillery -ranges  were  next  behind,  and  then  the 

66 


GETTING  THEIR  STRIDE  67 

aviation-grounds.  The  hospitals  were  placed 
everywhere  along  the  lines,  from  field-bases  to 
those  far  in  the  rear.  And  because  neither 
French  train  service  nor  Franco-American  motor 
service  could  bear  the  giant  burden  of  man-and- 
supply  transportation,  the  first  job  to  which 
the  engineer  and  labor  units  were  assigned  was 
laying  road-beds  across  France  for  a  four-track 
railroad  within  the  American  lines. 

In  those  days  America  did  not  look  forward 
to  the  emergency  which  was  to  brigade  her 
troops  with  French  or  British,  under  Allied 
Generalissimo  Foch.  Her  plans  were  to  put  in 
a  force  which  should  be,  as  the  English  say  of 
their  flats,  "self-contained."  If  this  arrange- 
ment had  a  fault,  it  was  that  it  was  too  leisurely. 
It  was  certainly  not  lacking  on  the  side  of  mag- 
nificence, either  in  concept  or  carrying-out. 

The  scheme  of  bringing  not  only  army  but 
base  of  supplies,  both  proportionate  to  a  nation 
of  a  hundred  million  people,  was  necessarily  be- 
gun from  the  ground  up.  The  American  Army 
built  railroads  and  warehouses  as  a  matter  of 
course.  It  laid  out  training-camps  for  the 
various  arms  of  the  service  on  an  unheard-of 


68  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

scale.  As  it  happens,  the  original  American 
plan  was  changed  by  the  force  of  circumstances. 
Much  of  the  American  man -power  eventually 
was  brigaded  with  the  British  and  French  and 
went  through  the  British  and  French  soldier- 
making  mills.  But  the  territory  marked  Amer- 
ica still  remains  America  and  the  excellent 
showing  made  by  the  War  Department  in  ship- 
ping men  during  the  spring  and  early  summer  of 
1918  furnished  a  supply  of  soldiers  sufficient  to 
make  allotments  to  the  Allies  directly  and  at 
the  same  time  preserve  a  considerable  force  as 
a  distinctly  American  Army.  It  is  possible  that 
the  fastest  method  of  preparation  possible 
might  have  been  to  brigade  with  the  Allies  from 
the  beginning.  But  it  would  have  been  difficult 
to  induce  America  to  accept  such  a  plan  if  it 
had  not  been  for  the  emergency  created  by  the 
great  German  drive  of  the  spring  of  1918. 

American  engineers  were  both  building  rail- 
roads and  running  them  from  July  on.  The 
hospital  units  were  installed  even  earlier.  The 
first  work  of  an  army  comes  behind  the  lines 
and  a  large  proportion  of  the  early  arrivals  of 
the  A.  E.  F.  were  non-fighting  units.  At  that 


GETTING  THEIR  STRIDE  69 

there  was  no  satisfying  the  early  demands  for 
labor.  As  late  as  mid-August  General  Persh- 
ing  was  still  doing  the  military  equivalent  of 
tearing  his  hair  for  more  labor  units  and  steve- 
dores. A  small  number  of  negroes  employed 
as  civilian  stevedores  came  with  the  First 
Division,  but  they  could  not  begin  to  fill  the 
needs.  Later  all  the  stevedores  sent  were 
regularly  enlisted  members  of  the  army.  While 
the  great  undertaking  was  still  on  paper  and 
the  tips  of  tongues,  the  infantry  was  beginning 
its  hard  lessons  in  the  Vosges.  The  First 
Division  was  made  up  of  something  less  than  50 
per  cent  of  experienced  soldiers,  although  it 
was  a  regular  army  division.  The  leaven  of 
learning  was  too  scant.  The  rookies  were  all 
potentiality.  The  training  was  done  with 
French  soldiers  and  for  the  first  little  while 
under  French  officers.  A  division  of  Chasseurs 
Alpines  was  withdrawn  from  the  line  to  act  as 
instructors  for  the  Americans,  and  for  two 
months  the  armies  worked  side  by  side.  "You 
will  have  the  honor,"  so  the  French  order  read, 
"of  spending  your  permission  in  training  the 
American  troops."  This  might  not  seem  like 


70  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

the  pleasantest  of  all  possible  vacations  for 
men  from  the  line,  but  the  chasseurs  seemed  to 
take  to  it  readily  enough.  These  Chasseurs 
Alpines — the  Blue  Devils — were  the  finest  troops 
the  French  had.  And  if  they  were  to  give  their 
American  guests  some  sound  instruction  later 
on,  they  were  to  give  them  the  surprise  of  their 
lives  first. 

The  French  officer  is  the  most  dazzling  sight 
alive,  but  the  French  soldier  is  not.  Five  feet 
of  height  is  regarded  as  an  abundance.  He 
got  his  name  of  "poilu"  not  so  much  from  his 
beard  as  from  his  perpetual  little  black  mus- 
tache. 

The  doughboys  called  him  "Froggy"  with 
ever  so  definite  a  sense  of  condescension. 

:'Yes,  they  look  like  nothing — but  you  try 
following  them  for  half  a  day,"  said  an  Ameri- 
can officer  of  the  "poilus." 

They  have  a  short,  choppy  stride,  far  differ- 
ent to  the  gangling  gait  of  the  American  soldier. 
The  observer  who  looks  them  over  and  decides 
they  would  be  piffling  on  the  march,  forgets  to 
see  that  they  have  the  width  of  an  opera-singer 
under  the  arms,  and  that  they  no  more  get 


GETTING  THEIR  STRIDE  71 

winded  on  their  terrific  sprints  than  Caruso 
does  on  his  high  C's. 

And  after  they  had  done  some  stunts  with 
lifting  guns  by  the  bayonet  tip,  and  had  heaved 
bombs  by  the  afternoon,  the  doughboys  called 
in  their  old  opinions  and  got  some  new  ones. 

All  sorts  of  things  were  helping  along  the  in- 
ternational liking  and  respect.  The  prowess  of 
the  French  soldiers  was  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant. But  the  soldiers'  interpretation  of 
Pershing's  first  general  order  to  the  troops 
was  another.  This  order  ran: 

"For  the  first  time  in  history  an  American 
Army  finds  itself  in  European  territory.  The 
good  name  of  the  United  States  of  America  and 
the  maintenance  of  cordial  relations  require  the 
perfect  deportment  of  each  member  of  this 
command.  It  is  of  the  gravest  importance  that 
the  soldiers  of  the  American  Army  shall  at  all 
times  treat  the  French  people,  and  especially 
the  women,  with  the  greatest  courtesy  and  con- 
sideration. The  valiant  deeds  of  the  French 
Army  and  the  Allies,  by  which  together  they 
have  successfully  maintained  the  common  cause 
for  three  years,  and  the  sacrifices  of  the  civil 


72  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

population  of  France  in  support  of  their  armies, 
command  our  profound  respect.  This  can  best 
be  expressed  on  the  part  of  our  forces  by  uni- 
form courtesies  to  all  the  French  people,  and 
by  the  faithful  observance  of  their  laws  and 
customs.  The  intense  cultivation  of  the  soil  in 
France,  under  conditions  caused  by  the  war, 
makes  it  necessary  that  extreme  care  should  be 
taken  to  do  no  damage  to  private  property. 
The  entire  French  manhood  capable  of  bearing 
arms  is  in  the  field  fighting  the  enemy,  and  it 
should,  therefore,  be  a  point  of  honor  to  each 
member  of  the  American  Army  to  avoid  doing 
the  least  damage  to  any  property  in  France." 
Veteran  soldiers  take  a  general  order  as  a 
general  order,  following  it  literally.  Recruits 
on  a  mission  such  as  the  First  Division's  took 
that  first  general  order  as  a  sort  of  intimation, 
on  which  they  were  to  build  their  own  concep- 
tions of  gallantry  and  good-will.  Not  only  did 
they  avoid  doing  damage  to  French  property, 
they  minded  the  babies,  drew  the  well-water, 
carried  faggots,  peeled  potatoes — did  anything 
and  everything  they  found  a  Frenchwoman 
doing,  if  they  had  some  off  time. 


GETTING  THEIR  STRIDE  73 

They  fed  the  children  from  their  own  mess,, 
kept  them  behind  the  lines  at  grenade  practice, 
mended  their  toys  and  made  them  new  ones. 

These  things  cemented  the  international 
friendliness  that  the  statesmen  of  the  two  coun- 
tries had  made  so  much  talk  of.  And  by  the 
time  the  war  training  was  to  begin,  doughboys 
and  Blue  Devils  tramped  over  the  long  white 
roads  together  with  nothing  more  unfriendly 
left  between  them  than  rivalry. 

The  first  thing  they  were  set  to  do  was. 
trench-digging.  The  Vosges  boast  splendid 
meadows.  The  Americans  were  told  to  dig 
themselves  in.  The  method  of  training  with 
the  French  was  to  mark  a  line  where  the  trench 
should  be,  put  the  French  at  one  end  and  the 
Americans  at  the  other.  Then  they  were  to 
dig  toward  each  other  as  if  the  devil  was  after 
them,  and  compare  progress  when  they  met. 

Trench-digging  is  every  army's  prize  abomi- 
nation. A  good  hate  for  the  trenches  was  the 
first  step  of  the  Americans  toward  becoming 
professional.  It  was  said  of  the  Canadians 
early  in  the  war  that  though  they  would  die  in 
the  last  ditch  they  wouldn't  dig  it. 


74  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

No  army  but  the  German  ever  attempted  to 
make  its  trenches  neat  and  cosey  homes,  but 
even  the  hasty  gully  required  by  the  French 
seemed  an  obnoxious  burden  to  the  doughboy. 
The  first  marines  who  dug  a  trench  with  the 
Blue  Devils  found  that  their  picks  struck  a 
stone  at  every  other  blow,  and  that  by  the  time 
they  had  dug  deep  enough  to  conceal  their 
length  they  were  almost  too  exhausted  to  climb 
out  again. 

The  ten  days  given  over  to  trench-digging 
was  not  so  much  because  the  technic  was  in- 
tricate or  the  method  difficult  to  learn.  They 
were  to  break  the  spirit  of  the  soldiers  and  ham- 
mer down  their  conviction  that  they  would 
rather  be  shot  in  the  open  than  dig  a  trench 
to  hide  in.  They  were  also  to  keep  the  ach- 
ing backs  and  weary  shoulders  from  getting 
overstiff.  Toward  the  end  of  July  the  first 
batch  of  infantrymen  were  called  off  their 
trenches  and  were  started  at  bomb  practice. 
At  first  they  used  dummy  bombs.  The  little 
line  of  Blue  Devils  who  were  to  start  the 
party  picked  up  their  bombs,  swung  their  arms 
slowly  overhead,  held  them  straight  from  wrist 


GETTING  THEIR  STRIDE  75 

to  shoulder,  and  let  their  bombs  sail  easily  up 
on  a  long,  gentle  arc,  which  presently  landed 
them  in  the  practice  trenches. 

"One — two — three — four,"  they  counted,  and 
away  went  the  bombs.  The  doughboys 
laughed.  It  seemed  to  them  a  throw  fit  only 
for  a  woman  or  a  substitute  third  baseman  in 
the  Texas  League.  When  their  turn  came,  the 
doughboys  showed  the  Blue  Devils  the  right 
way  to  throw  a  bomb.  They  lined  them  out 
with  a  ton  of  energy  behind  each  throw,  and 
the  bombs  went  shooting  straight  through  the 
air,  level  above  the  trench-lines,  and  a  distance 
possibly  twice  as  far  as  that  attained  by  the 
Frenchmen.  They  stood  back  waiting  for  the 
applause  that  did  not  come. 

"The  objects  are  two  in  bomb-throwing,  and 
you  did  not  make  either,"  said  the  French  in- 
structor. 'You  must  land  your  bomb  in  the 
trenches — they  do  no  more  harm  than  wind 
when  they  fly  straight — and  you  must  save 
your  arm  so  that  you  can  throw  all  afternoon." 

So  the  baseball  throw  was  frowned  out,  and 
the  half -womanish,  half-cricket  throw  was 
brought  in. 


76  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

After  the  doughboys  had  mastered  their 
method  they  were  put  to  getting  somewhere 
with  it.  They  were  given  trenches  first  at  ten 
metres'  distance,  and  then  at  twenty.  Then 
there  were  competitions,  and  war  training  bor- 
rowed some  of  the  fun  of  a  track  meet.  The 
French  had  odds  on.  No  army  has  ever  equalled 
them  for  accuracy  of  bomb-throwing,  and  the 
doughboys,  once  pried  loose  from  their  base- 
ball advantage,  were  not  in  a  position  to  push 
the  French  for  their  laurels.  The  American 
Army's  respect  for  the  French  began  to  have 
growing-pains.  But  what  with  driving  hard 
work,  the  doughboys  learned  finally  to  land  a 
dummy  bomb  so  that  it  didn't  disgrace  them. 

With  early  August  came  the  live  grenades, 
and  the  first  serious  defect  in  the  American's 
natural  aptitude  for  war-making  was  turned 
up.  This  defect  had  the  pleasant  quality  of 
being  sentimentally  correct,  even  if  sharply 
reprehensible  from  the  French  point  of  view. 
It  was,  in  brief,  that  the  soldiers  had  no  sense 
of  danger,  and  resisted  all  efforts  to  implant  one, 
partly  from  sheer  lack  of  imagination  in  train- 
ing, and  partly  from  a  scorn  of  taking  to  cover. 


GETTING  THEIR  STRIDE  77 

The  live  bombs  were  hurled  from  deep 
trenches,  aimed  not  at  a  point,  but  at  a  distance 
—any  distance,  so  it  was  safe.  But  once  the 
bombs  were  thrown,  every  other  doughboy 
would  straighten  up  in  his  trench  to  see  what  he 
had  hit.  Faces  were  nipped  time  and  again 
by  the  fragments  of  flying  steel,  and  the  French 
heaped  admonitions  on  admonitions,  but  it  was 
long  before  the  American  soldiers  would  take 
their  war-game  seriously. 

Later,  in  the  mass  attacks  on  "enemy 
trenches,"  when  they  were  ordered  to  duck  on 
the  grass  to  avoid  the  bullets,  the  doughboys 
ducked  as  they  were  told,  then  popped  up  at 
once  on  one  elbow  to  see  what  they  could  see. 
The  Blue  Devils  training  with  them  lay  like 
prone  statues.  The  doughboys  looked  at  them 
in  astonishment,  and  said,  openly  and  frequently: 
"But  there  ain't  any  bullets." 

It  was  finally  from  the  British,  who  came 
later  as  instructors,  that  the  doughboys  accepted 
it  as  gospel  that  they  must  be  pragmatic  about 
the  dangers,  and  "act  as  if  .  .  ."  Then  some 
of  the  wiseacres  at  the  camp  pronounced  the 
conviction  that  the  Americans  thought  the 


78  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

French  were  melodramatic,  and  by  no  means  to 
be  copied,  until  they  found  their  British  first 
cousins,  surely  above  reproach  for  needless 
emotionalism,  were  doing  the  same  strange 
things. 

The  state  of  mind  into  which  Allied  instruc- 
tors sought  to  drive  or  coax  the  Americans  was 
pinned  into  a  sharp  phrase  by  a  Far  Western 
enlisted  man  before  he  left  his  own  country. 
A  melancholy  relative  had  said,  as  he  departed : 
"Are  you  ready  to  give  your  life  to  your  coun- 
try?" To  which  the  soldier  answered:  "You 
bet  your  neck  I'm  not — Fm  going  to  make  some 
German  give  his  life  for  his." 

This  was  representative  enough  of  the  senti- 
ments of  the  doughboys,  but  the  instructors 
ran  afoul  of  their  deepest  convictions  when 
they  insisted  that  this  was  an  art  to  be  learned, 
not  a  mere  preference  to  be  favored. 

After  the  live  bombs  came  the  first  lessons  in 
machine-gun  fire,  using  the  French  machine- 
gun  and  automatic  rule.  The  soldiers  were 
taught  to  take  both  weapons  apart  and  put 
them  together  again,  and  then  they  were  ordered 
to  fire  them. 


GETTING  THEIR  STRIDE  79 

The  first  trooper  to  tackle  an  automatic 
rifle  aimed  the  little  monster  from  the  trenches, 
and  opened  h.-e,  but  he  found  to  his  discom- 
fiture that  he  had  sprayed  the  hilltops  instead 
of  the  range,  and  one  of  the  officers  of  the  Blue 
Devils  told  him  he  would  better  be  careful  or  he 
would  be  transferred  to  the  anti-aircraft  service. 

The  veterans  of  the  army,  however,  had  little 
trouble  with  the  automatic  rifle  or  the  machine- 
guns,  even  at  first.  The  target  was  200  metres 
away,  at  the  foot  of  a  hill,  and  the  first  of  the 
sergeants  to  tackle  it  made  30  hits  out  of  a 
possible  34. 

The  average  for  the  army  fell  short  of  this, 
but  the  men  were  kept  at  it  till  they  were  thor- 
oughly proficient. 

One  characteristic  of  all  the  training  of  the 
early  days  at  camp  was  that  both  officers  and 
men  were  being  prepared  to  train  later  troops 
in  their  turn,  so  that  many  lectures  in  war 
theory  and  science,  a^id  many  demonstrations 
of  both,  were  included  there.  This  accounted 
for  much  of  the  additional  time  required  to  train 
the  First  Division. 

But  while  their  own  training  was  unusually 


80  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

long  drawn  out,  they  were  being  schooled  in  the 
most  intensive  methods  in  use  in  either  French 
or  British  Army.  It  was  an  unending  matter 
for  disgust  to  the  doughboy  that  it  took  him  so 
long  to  learn  to  hurry. 


CHAPTER  VII 
SPEEDING  UP 

WHILE  the  soldiers  were  still,  figuratively 
speaking,  in  their  own  trenches  and  learn- 
ing the  several  arts  of  getting  out,  the  officers 
of  the  infantry  camp  were  having  some  special 
instructions  in  instructing. 

Young  captains  and  lieutenants  were  placed 
in  command  of  companies  of  the  Blue  Devils, 
and  told  to  put  them  through  their  paces — in 
French. 

It  was,  of  course,  a  point  of  honor  with  the 
officers  not  to  fall  back  into  English,  even  in  an 
emergency.  One  particularly  nervous  young 
man,  who  had  ordered  his  French  platoon  to 
march  to  a  cliff  some  distance  away,  forgot  the 
word  for  "Halt*'  or  "Turn  around"  as  the  dis- 
ciplined Blue  Devils,  eyes  straight  ahead, 
marched  firmly  down  upon  their  doom.  At 
the  very  edge,  while  the  American  clinched  his 
sticky  palms  and  wondered  what  miracle  would 

81 


82  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

save  him,  a  helpful  French  officer  called  "Halte," 
and  the  American  suddenly  remembered  that 
the  word  was  the  same  m  both  languages — an 
experience  revoltingly  frequent  with  Americans 
in  distress  with  their  French. 

But  disasters  such  as  this  were  not  numerous. 
/ 

The  officers  worked  excellently,  at  French  as 
well  as  soldiering,  and  little  precious  time  was 
needed  for  them. 

Three  battalions  were  at  work  at  this  first 
training — two  American  and  one  French.  As 
these  learned  their  lessons,  they  were  put  for- 
ward to  the  next  ones,  and  new  troops  began  at 
the  beginning.  This  plan  was  thoroughly  or- 
ganized at  the  very  beginning,  so  that  the 
later  enormous  influx  of  troops  did  not  disrupt 
it,  and  as  the  first  Americans  came  nearer  to 
the  perfection  they  were  after,  they  were  put 
back  to  leaven  the  raw  troops  as  the  French 
Blue  Devils  had  done  for  the  first  of  them. 

The  plan  further  meant  that  after  the  first 
few  weeks,  what  with  beginners  in  the  First 
Division  and  newly  arriving  troops,  the  Vosges 
fields  offered  instruction  at  almost  anything 
along  the  programme  on  any  given  day. 


SPEEDING  UP  83 

Over  the  whole  camp,  the  aim  of  the  French 
officers  was  to  reproduce  actual  battle  conditions 
as  absolutely  as  possible,  and  to  eliminate,  within 
reason,  any  advantage  that  surprise  might  give 
to  the  Germans. 

By  the  end  of  the  first  week  in  August,  the 
best  scholars  among  the  trench-diggers  and 
bombers  were  being  shown  how  to  clean  out 
trenches  with  live  grenades,  and  the  machine- 
gunners  and  marksmen  were  getting  good  enough 
to  be  willing  to  bet  their  own  money  on  their 
performances. 

Then  came  the  battalion  problems,  the  proper 
use  of  grenades  by  men  advancing  in  formations 
against  a  mythical  enemy  in  intrenched  posi- 
tions. 

From  the  beginning,  the  American  Army  re- 
fused to  accept  the  theory  that  the  war  would 
never  again  get  into  the  open.  They  trained 
in  open  warfare,  and  with  a  far  greater  zest — 
partly,  of  course,  because  it  was  the  thing  they 
knew  a^eady,  though  they  found  they  had  some 
things  to  unlearn. 

Then  the  war  brought  about  a  reorganization 
of  American  army  units,  and  it  was  necessary 


84  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

for  the  officers  to  familiarize  themselves  with 
new  conditions.  The  reorganization  was  or- 
dered early  in  August,  and  put  into  effect 
shortly  afterward.  The  request  from  General 
Pershing  that  the  administrative  units  of  the 
infantry  be  altered  to  conform  with  European 
systems  had  in  its  favor  the  fact  that  it  econ- 
omized higher  officers  and  regimental  staffs,  for 
at  the  same  time  that  divisions  were  made 
smaller,  regiments  were  made  larger. 

The  new  arrangement  of  the  infantry  called 
for  a  company  of  250  enlisted  men  and  6  com- 
missioned officers,  instead  of  100  men  and  3 
officers.  Each  company  was  then  divided  into 
4  platoons,  with  a  lieutenant  in  command. 
Each  regiment  was  made  up  of  3  battalions  of 
4  companies  each,  supplemented  by  regimental 
headquarters  and  the  supply  and  machine- 
gun  organizations. 

This  made  it  possible  to  have  1  colonel  and 
3  battalion  commanders  officer  3,600  men,  as 
against  2,000  of  the  old  order. 

This  army  in  the  making  was  not  called  on 
to  show  itself  in  the  mass  till  August  16,  just  a 
month  after  its  hard  work  had  begun.  Then 


SPEEDING  UP  85 

Major-General  Sibert,  field -commander  of  the 
First  Division  and  best-loved  man  in  France, 
held  a  review  of  all  the  troops.  The  manoeu- 
vres were  held  in  a  great  open  plain.  The 
marching  was  done  to  spirited  bands,  who  had 
to  offset  a  driving  rain-storm  to  keep  the  men 
perked  up.  The  physical  exercise  of  the  first 
month  showed  in  the  carriage  of  the  men,  infi- 
nitely improved,  and  they  marched  admirably, 
in  spite  of  the  fact  that  their  first  training  had 
been  a  specialization  in  technical  trench  war- 
fare. General  Sibert  made  them  a  short  ad- 
dress of  undiluted  praise,  and  they  went  back 
to  work  again. 

A  few  days  later  the  army  had  its  first  intelli- 
gence drill,  with  the  result  that  some  erstwhile 
soldiers  were  told  off  to  cook  and  tend  mules. 

The  test  consisted  in  delivering  oral  mes- 
sages. One  message  was:  "M.ajor  Blank  sends 
his  compliments  to  Captain  Nameless,  and  or- 
ders him  to  move  L  Company  one-half  mile  to 
the  east,  and  support  K  Company  in  the  at- 
tack." The  officer  who  gave  the  message  then 
moved  up  the  hill  and  prepared  to  receive  it. 

The  third  man  up  came  in  panting  excite- 


86  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

aient,  full  of  earnest  desire  to  do  well.  "Cap- 
tain, the  major  says  that  you're  to  move  your 
men  a  mile  to  the  east,"  he  said,  "and  attack 
K  Company."  He  peeled  the  potatoes  for 
supper. 

The  gas  tests  came  late  in  August.  The 
officers,  believing  that  fear  of  gas  could  not  be 
excessive,  had  done  some  tall  talking  before 
the  masks  were  given  out,  and  in  the  first  test, 
when  the  men  were  to  enter  a  gas-filled  cham- 
ber with  their  masks  on,  they  had  all  been  as- 
sured that  one  whiff  would  be  fatal.  The  gas 
in  the  chamber  was  of  the  tear-compelling  kind, 
only  temporarily  harmful,  even  on  exposure  to 
it.  But  that  was  a  secret. 

The  men  were  drilled  in  putting  their  masks 
on,  till  the  worst  of  them  could  do  it  in  from 
three  to  five  seconds.  Both  the  French  and 
the  British  masks  were  used,  the  one  much 
lighter  but  comparatively  riskier  than  the 
other.  Officers  required  the  men  to  have  their 
masks  constantly  within  reach,  and  gas  alarms 
used  to  be  called  at  meal-times,  or  whenever  it 
seemed  thoroughly  inconvenient  to  have  them. 
The  soldiers  were  required  to  drop  everything 


SPEEDING  UP  87 

and  don  the  cumbersome  contrivances,  no  mat- 
ter how  well  they  knew  that  there  wasn't  any 
gas.  There  is  no  question  that  this  thorough- 
ness saved  many  lives  when  the  men  went  into 
the  trenches. 

When  they  masked  and  went  into  the  gas- 
chamber  the  care  they  took  with  straps  and 
buckles  could  not  have  been  bettered.  One 
or  two  of  the  men  fainted  from  heat  and  ner- 
vousness, but  nobody  caught  the  temporary 
blindness  that  would  have  been  their  lot  if  the 
gas  had  not  been  held  off.  And  after  the  first 
few  entrants  had  returned  none  the  worse,  the 
rest  made  a  lark  of  it,  and  the  whole  experience 
stamped  on  their  minds  the  uselessness  of  gas 
as  a  weapon  if  you're  handy  with  the  mask. 

The  first  insistence  on  rifle  use  and  marks- 
manship, which  General  Pershing  was  to  stress 
later  with  all  the  eloquence  he  had,  was  heard 
in  late  August.  The  French  said  frankly  they 
had  neglected  the  power  of  the  rifle,  and  the 
Americans  were  put  to  work  to  avoid  the 
same  mistake.  In  target-shooting  with  rifles 
the  Americans  got  their  first  taste  of  supremacy. 
They  ceased  being  novitiates  for  as  long  as  they 


88  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

held  their  rifles,  and  became  respected  and  ad- 
mired experts.  The  first  English  Army,  "the 
Old  Contemptibles,"  had  all  been  expert  rifle- 
shots, and,  after  a  period  when  rifle  fire  was 
almost  entirely  absent  from  the  battle-fields, 
tacticians  began  to  recall  this  fact,  and  the  cost 
it  had  entailed  upon  the  Germans. 

So  the  doughboys  added  rifle  fire  to  their 
other  jobs. 

About  this  time  the  day  of  the  doughboy  was 
a  pattern  of  compactness,  though  he  called  it  a 
harsher  name. 

It  began  in  the  training  area  at  five  o'clock 
in  the  morning.  One  regiment  had  a  story  that 
some  of  the  farm  lads  used  to  beat  the  buglers 
up  every  day  and  wander  about  disconsolate, 
wondering  why  the  morning  was  being  wasted. 
This  was  probably  fictional.  As  a  rule,  five 
o'clock  came  all  too  early.  There  was  little 
opportunity  to  roll  over  and  have  another  wink, 
for  roll-call  came  at  five-thirty,  and  this  was 
followed  by  brief  setting-up  exercises,  designed 
to  give  the  men  an  ambition  for  breakfast.  At 
this  meal  French  customs  were  not  popular. 
The  poilu,  who  begins  his  day  with  black  coffee 


SPEEDING  UP  89 

and  a  little  bread,  was  always  amazed  to  see 
the  American  soldier  engaged  with  griddle-cakes 
and  corned-beef  hash,  and  such  other  substantial 
things  as  he  could  get  at  daybreak.  Just  after 
breakfast  sick-call  was  sounded.  It  was  up  to 
the  ailing  man  to  report  at  that  time  as  a  suf- 
ferer or  forever  after  hold  his  peace.  While 
the  sick  were  engaged  in  reporting  themselves 
the  healthy  men  tidied  up.  Work  proper  began 
at  seven. 

As  a  rule,  bombing,  machine-gun,  and  auto- 
matic-rifle fire  practice  came  in  the  mornings. 
Time  was  called  at  eleven  and  the  soldiers 
marched  back  to  billets  for  the  midday  meal. 
Later,  when  the  work  piled  up  even  more,  the 
meals  were  prepared  on  the  training-grounds. 
Rifle  and  bayonet  practice  came  in  the  after- 
noon. Four  o'clock  marked  the  end  of  the 
working-day  for  all  except  captains  and  lieu- 
tenants, who  never  found  any  free  time  in 
waking  hours.  In  fact,  most  of  the  excited 
youngsters — almost  all  under  thirty — let  their 
problems  perturb  their  dreams.  The  dough- 
boys amused  themselves  with  swims,  walks, 
concerts,  supper,  and  French  children  till  nine 


90  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

o'clock,  when  they  were  always  amiable  toward 
going  to  bed. 

With  September  came  the  British  to  supple- 
ment the  French  and,  after  a  little,  to  go  far 
toward  replacing  them.  For  the  Blue  Devils 
had  still  work  to  do  on  the  Germans,  and  their 
"vacation"  could  not  last  too  long. 

A  fine  and  spectacular  sham  battle  put  a  cli- 
max to  the  stay  of  the  French,  when,  after 
artillery  preparation,  the  Blue  Devils  took 
the  newly  made  American  trenches,  advanc- 
ing under  heavy  barrage.  The  three  objectives 
were  named  Mackensen,  Von  Kluck,  and  Lu- 
dendorff.  The  artillery  turned  everything  it 
had  into  the  slow-moving  screen,  under  which 
the  "chasers"  crept  toward  the  foe.  All  the 
watching  doughboys  had  been  instructed  to  put 
on  their  shrapnel  helmets.  At  the  pitch  of  the 
battle  some  officers  found  their  men  using  their 
helmets  as  good  front  seats  for  the  show,  but 
fortunately  there  were  no  casualties.  Words  do 
not  kill. 

The  departure  of  the  Blue  Devils  was  at- 
tended by  a  good  deal  of  home-made  ceremony 
and  a  universal  deep  regret.  A  genuine  liking 


SPEEDING  UP  91 

had  sprung  up  between  the  Americans  and  their 
French  preceptors,  and  when  they  marched 
away  from  camp  the  soldiers  flung  over  them 
what  detachable  trophies  they  had,  the  strains 
of  all  their  bands,  the  unified  good  wishes  of 
the  whole  First  Division,  and  unnumbered 
promises  to  be  a  credit  to  their  teachers  when 
they  got  into  the  line. 

It  was  the  bayonet  which  proved  the  first 
connecting-link  between  the  Americans  and  the 
British.  American  observers  had  decided  after 
a  lew  weeks  that  the  bayonet  was  a  peculiarly 
British  weapon,  and  hi  consequence  it  was  de- 
cided that  for  this  phase  of  the  training,  the 
army  should  rely  on  the  British  rather  than  the 
French. 

The  British  General  Staff  obligingly  supplied 
the  chief  bayonet  instructor  of  their  army  with 
a  number  of  assisting  sergeants,  and  the  squad 
was  sent  down  to  camp. 

The  British  brought  two  important  things, 
in  addition  to  expert  bayoneting.  They  were, 
first,  a  familiar  bluntness  of  criticism,  wrhich 
the  Americans  had  rather  missed  with  the  polite 
French,  and  a  competitive  spirit,  stirred  up 


92  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

wherever  possible  between  rival  units  of  the 
A.  E.  F. 

Their  willingness  to  "act"  their  practice  was 
another  factor,  though  in  that  they  did  not  ex- 
cel the  French  except  in  that  they  could  impart 
it  to  the  Americans. 

The  British  theory  of  bayonet  work  proved 
to  be  almost  wholly  offensive.  They  went  at 
their  instruction  of  it  with  undimmed  fire. 
At  the  end  of  the  first  week,  they  gave  a  demon- 
stration to  some  visiting  officers.  Three  short 
trenches  had  been  constructed  in  a  little  dip 
of  land,  and  the  spectators  stood  on  the  hill 
above  them.  On  the  opposite  slope  tin  cans 
shone  brightly,  hoisted  on  sticks. 

"Ready,  gentlemen,"  said  the  drill-sergeant. 
"Prepare  for  trench  bayonet  practice  by  half 
sections.  You're  to  take  these  three  lines  of 
trenches,  lay  out  every  Boche  in  the  lot,  and 
then  get  to  cover  and  fire  six  rounds  at  them 
'ere  tin  hats.  Don't  waste  a  shot,  gentlemen, 
every  bullet  a  Boche.  Now,  then,  ready — 
over  the  top,  and  give  'em  'ell,  right  in  the 
stomach." 

Over  the  top  they  went  and  did  as  they  were 
told.  But  the  excitement  was  not  great  enough 


SPEEDING  UP  93 

to  please  the  drill-sergeant.  He  turned  to  the 
second  section,  and  put  them  through  at  a 
rounder  pace.  Then  he  took  over  some  young 
officers,  who  were  being  instructed  to  train 
later  troops,  at  cleaning  out  trenches.  Sacks 
representing  Germans  were  placed  in  a  com- 
municating trench. 

"Now,  remember,  gentlemen,"  said  the  ser- 
geant, "there's  a  Fritz  in  each  one  of  these 
'ere  cubby-'oles,  and  'e's  no  dub,  is  Fritz.  'E's 
got  ears  all  down  'is  back.  Make  your  feet 
pneumatic.  For  'eaven's  sake,  don't  sneeze, 
or  'is  nibs  will  sling  you  a  bomb  like  winkin', 
and  there'll  be  a  narsty  mess.  Ready,  Number 
One !  'Ead  down,  bayonet  up  ...  it's  no  use 
stickin'  out  your  neck  to  get  a  sight  of  Fritzie 
in  'is  'ole.  Why,  if  old  Fritz  was  there,  Vd 
just  down  your  point,  and  then  where'd  you  be  ? 
Why,  just  a  blinkin'  casualty,  and  don't  you 
forget  it.  Ready  again,  bayonet  up.  Now 
you  see  'em.  Quick,  down  with  your  point 
and  at  'im.  Tickle  'is  gizzard.  Not  so  bad,  but 
I  bet  you  waked  'is  nibs  in  the  next  'ole.  Keep 
in  mind  you're  fightin'  for  your  life.  .  .  ." 

By  the  time  the  officers  were  into  the  trench, 
the  excitement  was  terrific. 


94  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

It  was  such  measures  as  these  that  made  the 
bayonet  work  go  like  lightning,  and  cut  down 
the  time  required  at  it  by  more  than  one- 
half. 

The  organized  recreation  and  the  competi- 
tions, two  sturdy  British  expedients  for  morale, 
always  came  just  after  these  grimmest  of  all  of 
war's  practices.  The  more  foolish  the  game, 
the  more  rapturously  the  British  joined  in  it. 
Red  Rover  and  prisoner's  base  were  two  prime 
favorites.  A  British  major  said  the  British 
Army  had  discovered  that  when  the  men  came 
out  of  the  trenches,  fagged  and  horror-struck, 
the  surest  way  to  bring  them  back  was  to  set 
them  hard  at  playing  some  game  remembered 
from  their  childhood. 

The  British  had  even  harder  work,  at  first, 
to  make  the  men  fall  in  with  the  games  than 
they  had  with  war  practice.  But  the  friendly 
spirit  existing  basically  between  English  and 
Americans,  however  spatty  their  exterior  re- 
lationships may  sometimes  be,  finally  got  every- 
body in  together.  The  Americans  found  that 
a  British  instructor  would  as  lief  call  them  "rot- 
ten" if  he  thought  they  deserved  it,  but  that 


SPEEDING  UP  95 

he  did  it  so  simply  and  inoffensively  that  it  was, 
on  the  whole,  very  welcome. 

So  the  Americans  learned  all  they  could  from 
French  and  British,  and  began  the  scheme  of 
'  turning  back  on  themselves,  and  doing  their 
own  instructing. 

The  infantry  camp  was  destined  to  have  some 
offshoots,  as  the  number  of  men  grew  larger, 
and  the  specialists  required  intensive  work. 
Officers*  schools  sprang  up  all  over  France, 
and  all  the  supplemental  forces,  which  had  in- 
fantry training  at  first,  scattered  off  to  their 
special  training,  notably  the  men  trained  to 
throw  gas  and  liquid  fire. 

But,  for  the  most  part,  the  camp  in  the  Vosges 
remained  the  big  central  mill  it  was  designed  to 
be,  and  in  late  October,  when  three  battalions 
put  on  their  finishing  touches  in  the  very  battle- 
line,  the  cycle  was  complete.  Before  the  time 
when  General  Pershing  offered  the  Expedition- 
ary Force  to  Generalissimo  Foch,  to  put  where 
he  chose,  the  giant  treadway  from  sea  to  camp 
and  from  camp  to  battle  was  grinding  in  mon- 
ster rhythms.  It  never  thereafter  feared  any 
influx  of  its  raw  material. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
BACK  WITH  THE  BIG  GUNS 

American  Expeditionary  Force  which 
•••  went  into  the  great  training-schools  of 
France  and  England  was  like  nothing  so  much 
as  a  child  who,  having  long  been  tutored  in  a 
programme  of  his  own  make,  an  abundance  of 
what  he  liked  and  nothing  of  what  he  didn't, 
should  be  thrust  into  some  grade  of  a  public 
school.  He  would  be  ridiculously  advanced  in 
mathematics  and  a  dunce  at  grammar,  or  his- 
torian to  his  finger-tips  and  ignorant  that  two 
and  two  make  four.  He  would  amaze  his 
fellow  pupils  in  each  respect  equally. 

And  that  was  the  lot  of  the  Expeditionary 
Force.  The  French  found  them  backward  in 
trench  work  and  bombing,  and  naturally  enough 
expected  that  backwardness  to  follow  through. 
They  conceded  the  natural  quickness  of  the 
pupils,  but  saw  a  long  road  ahead  before  they 
could  become  an  army.  Then  the  Americans 
tackled  artillery,  hardest  and  deepest  of  the 

96 


BACK  WITH  THE  BIG  GUNS  97 

war  problems,  and  suddenly  blossomed  out  as 
experts. 

Of  course,  the  analogy  is  not  to  be  leaned  on 
too  heavily.  The  Americans  were  not,  on  the 
instant,  the  arch-exponents  of  artillery  in  all 
Europe.  But  it  is  true  that  in  comparison  to 
the  size  of  their  army,  and  to  the  extent  to 
which  they  had  prepared  nationally  for  war, 
their  artillery  was  stronger  than  that  of  any 
other  country  on  the  Allied  side  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  war,  notwithstanding  that  it  was  the 
point  where  they  might  legitimately  have  been 
expected  to  be  the  weakest. 

Hilaire  Belloc  called  the  American  artillery 
preparation  one  of  the  most  dramatic  and  wel- 
come surprises  of  the  war. 

It  must  be  understood  that  all  this  applies 
only  to  men  and  not  in  the  least  to  guns.  For 
big  guns,  the  American  reliance  was  wholly 
upon  France  and  England,  upon  the  invitation 
of  those  two  countries  when  America  entered 
the  war. 

And  the  readiness  of  America's  men  was  not 
due  to  a  large  preparation  in  artillery  as  such. 
The  blessing  arose  from  the  fact  that  the  coast 


98  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

defense  could  be  diverted,  within  the  first  year 
of  war,  to  the  handling  of  the  big  guns  for  land 
armies,  and  thus  strengthen  the  artillery  arm 
sent  to  France  for  final  training. 

Artillery  was  every  country's  problem,  even 
in  peace-times.  It  was  the  service  which  re- 
quired the  greatest  wealth  and  the  most  pro- 
found training.  There  was  no  such  thing  as  a 
citizenry  trained  to  artillery.  Mathematics  was 
its  stronghold,  and  no  smattering  could  be 
made  to  do.  Even  more  than  mathematics  was 
the  facility  of  handling  the  big  guns  when 
mathematics  went  askew  from  special  condi- 
tions. 

These  things  the  coast  defense  had,  if  not  in 
final  perfection,  at  least  in  creditable  degree. 
And  the  diversion  of  it  to  the  artillery  in  France 
stiffened  the  backbone  of  the  Expeditionary 
Force  to  the  pride  of  the  force  and  the  glad 
amazement  of  its  preceptors. 

One  other  thing  the  coast  defense  had  done: 
it  had  pre-empted  the  greater  part  of  America's 
attention  in  times  of  peace  and  unprepared- 
ness,  so  that  big-gun  problems  had  received  a 
disproportionate  amount  of  study.  The  Ameri- 


BACK  WITH  THE  BIG  GUNS  99 

can  technical  journals  on  artillery  were  always 
of  the  finest.  The  war  services  were  honey- 
combed with  men  who  were  big-gun  experts. 

So  when  the  first  artillery  training-school 
opened  in  France,  in  mid-August  of  1917,  the 
problems  to  be  faced  were  all  of  a  more  or  less 
external  character. 

The  first  of  these,  of  course,  was  airplane 
work.  The  second  was  in  mastering  gun  differ- 
ences between  American  and  French  types,  and 
in  learning  about  the  enormous  numbers  of  new 
weapons  which  had  sprung  from  battle  almost 
day  by  day. 

The  camp,  when  the  Americans  moved  in, 
had  much  to  recommend  it  to  its  new  inhabi- 
tants. There  need  be  no  attempt  to  conceal 
the  fact  that  first  satisfaction  came  with  the 
barracks,  second  with  the  weather,  and  only 
third  with  the  guns  and  planes. 

Some  of  the  artillerymen  had  come  from  the 
infantry  camps,  and  some  direct  from  the 
coast.  Those  from  the  Vosges  camp  were  bois- 
terous in  their  praise  of  their  quarters.  They 
had  brick  barracks,  with  floors,  and  where  they 
were  billeted  v/ith  the  French  they  found  excel- 


100  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

lent  quarters  in  the  old,  low-lying  stone  and 
brick  houses.  The  weather  would  not  have 
been  admired  by  any  outsider.  But  to  the 
men  from  the  Vosges  it  owed  a  reputation,  be- 
cause they  extolled  it  both  day  and  night.  The 
artillery  camp  was  in  open  country,  to  permit 
of  the  long  ranges,  and  if  it  sunned  little  enough, 
neither  did  it  rain. 

The  guns  and  airplanes  supplied  by  the 
French  were  simple  at  first,  becoming,  as  to 
guns  at  least,  steadily  more  numerous  and 
complicated  as  the  training  went  on. 

The  men  began  on  the  seventy-fives,  approxi- 
mately the  American  three-inch  gun,  and  on 
the  howitzers  of  twice  that  size. 

The  airplane  service  was  the  only  part  of  the 
work  wholly  new  to  the  men,  and,  naturally 
enough,  it  was  the  most  attractive. 

Although  the  officers  and  instructors  warned 
that  air  observation  and  range-finding  was  by 
far  the  most  dangerous  of  all  artillery  service, 
seventy-five  per  cent  of  the  young  officers  who 
were  eligible  for  the  work  volunteered  for  it. 
This  required  a  two-thirds  weeding  out,  and  in- 
sured the  very  pick  of  men  for  the  air  crews. 


BACK  WITH  THE  BIG  GUNS  101 

The  air  service  with  artillery  was  made  over 
almost  entirely  by  the  French  between  the 
time  of  the  war's  beginning  and  America's  en- 
trance. All  the  old  visual  aids  were  abolished, 
such  as  smoke-pointers  and  rockets,  and  the 
telephone  and  wireless  were  installed  in  their 
stead.  The  observation -balloons  had  the  tele- 
phone service,  and  the  planes  had  wireless. 

By  these  means  the  guns  were  first  fired  and 
then  reported  on.  The  general  system  of  range- 
finding  was:  "First  fire  long,  then  fire  short, 
then  split  the  bracket."  This  was  the  joint 
job  of  planes  and  gunners — one  not  to  be  de- 
spised as  a  feat. 

In  fact,  artillery  is,  of  all  services,  'the  one 
most  dependent  on  co-operation.  It  is  always 
a  joint  job,  but  the  joining  must  be  done  among 
many  factors. 

Its  effectiveness  depends  first  upon  the  pre- 
cision of  the  mathematical  calculation  which 
goes  before  the  pull  of  the  lanyard.  This  calcu- 
lation is  complicated  by  the  variety  of  types  of 
guns  and  shells,  and,  in  the  case  of  howitzers, 
by  the  variable  behavior  of  charges  of  different 
size  and  power.  But  these  are  things  that  can 


102  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

be  learned  with  patience,  and  require  knowledge 
rather  than  inspiration. 

It  is  when  the  air  service  enters  that  inspira- 
tion enters  with  it.  Observation  must  be  ac- 
curate, in  spite  of  weather,  visibility,  enemy 
camouflage,  and  everything  else.  More  than 
that,  the  observer  in  the  plane  must  keep  him- 
self safe — often  a  matter  of  sheer  genius. 

The  map-maker  must  do  his  part,  so  that 
targets  not  so  elusive  as  field-guns  and  motor- 
emplacements  can  be  found  without  much  help 
from  the  air. 

Finally,  the  artillery  depends,  even  more  than 
any  other  branch  of  the  service,  on  the  rapidity 
with  which  its  wants  can  be  filled  from  the  rear. 
The  mobility  of  the  big  pieces,  and  their  con- 
stant connections  with  ammunition-stores,  are 
matters  depending  directly  on  the  training  of 
the  artillerymen. 

These,  then,  were  the  things  in  which  the 
Americans  were  either  tested  or  trained.  Their 
mathematics  were  Al,  as  has  been  noted,  and 
their  familiarity  with  existing  models  of  big 
guns  sufficient  to  enable  them  to  pick  up  the 
new  types  without  long  effort. 


BACK  WITH  THE  BIG  GUNS  103 

They  had  a  few  weeks  of  heavy  going  with 
pad  and  pencil,  then  they  were  led  to  the  giant 
stores  of  French  ammunition — more  than  any 
of  them  had  ever  seen  before — and  told  to  open 
fire.  One  dramatic  touch  exacted  by  the  French 
instructors  was  that  the  guns  should  be  pointed 
toward  Germany,  no  matter  how  impotent  their 
distance  made  them. 

Long  lanes,  up  to  12,000  metres,  were  told 
off  for  the  ranges.  The  training  was  intensive, 
because  at  that  time  there  was  a  half-plan  to 
put  the  artillery  first  into  the  battle-line.  In 
any  case  it  is  easier  to  make  time  on  secondary 
problems  than  on  primary. 

Throughout  September,  while  the  artillery- 
men grew  in  numbers  as  well  as  proficiency,  the 
mastering  of  gun  types  was  perfected,  and  the 
theory  of  aim  was  worked  out  on  paper. 

Late  in  the  month  the  French  added  more 
guns,  chief  among  them  being  a  monster 
mounted  on  railway-trucks  whose  projectile 
weighed  1,800  pounds.  The  artillerymen  named 
her  "Mosquito,"  "because  she  had  a  sting,"  al- 
though she  had  served  for  300  charges  at  Verdun. 
It  was  not  long  before  every  type  of  gun  in 


104  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

the  French  Army,  and  many  from  the  British, 
were  lined  up  in  the  artillery  camp,  being  ex- 
pertly pulled  apart  and  reassembled. 

By  the  time  the  artillery  went  into  battle 
with  the  infantry,  failing  in  their  intention  to 
go  first  alone,  but  nevertheless  first  in  actual 
fighting,  they  were  able  to  give  a  fine  account 
of  themselves.  By  the  time  they  had  got  back 
to  camp  and  were  training  new  troops  from 
then*  own  experience,  they  were  the  centre  of 
an  extraordinary  organization. 

The  rolling  of  men  from  camp  to  battle  and 
back  again,  training,  retraining,  and  fighting 
in  the  circle,  with  an  increasing  number  of  men 
able  to  remain  in  the  line,  and  a  constantly 
increasing  number  of  new  men  permitted  to 
come  in  at  the  beginning,  ground  out  an  ad- 
mirable system  before  the  old  year  was  out. 

The  fact  that  the  artillery-school  could  not 
take  its  material  raw  did  not  make  the  hitches 
it  otherwise  would,  chiefly,  of  course,  because  of 
the  coast  defense,  and  somewhat  because  Ameri- 
can college  men  were  found  to  have  a  fine  sub- 
stratum of  technical  knowledge  which  artillery 
could  turn  to  account. 


BACK  WITH  THE  BIG  GUNS  105 

After  all  the  routine  was  fairly  learned,  and 
there  had  been  a  helpful  interim  in  the  line, 
the  artillery  practised  on  some  specialties, 
partly  of  their  own  contribution,  and  partly 
those  suggested  by  the  other  armies. 

One  of  these,  the  most  picturesque,  was  the 
shattering  of  the  "pill-boxes,"  German  inven- 
tions for  staying  in  No  Man's  Land  without 
being  hit. 

A  "pill-box"  is  a  tiny  concrete  fortress,  set 
up  in  front  of  the  trenches,  usually  in  groups  of 
fifteen  to  twenty.  They  have  slot-like  aper- 
tures, through  which  Germans  do  their  sniping. 
They  are  supposed  to  be  immune  from  any- 
thing except  direct  hit  by  a  huge  shell.  But 
the  American  artillery  camp  worked  out  a  way 
of  getting  them — with  luck.  Each  aperture, 
through  which  the  German  inmates  sighted  and 
shot,  was  put  under  fire  from  automatic  rifles, 
coming  from  several  directions  at  once,  so  that 
it  was  indiscreet  for  the  Boche  to  stay  near  his 
windows,  on  any  slant  he  could  devise.  Under 
cover  of  this  rifle  barrage,  bombers  crept  for- 
ward, and  at  a  signal  the  rifle  fire  stopped,  and 
the  bombers  threw  their  destruction  in. 


106  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

All  these  accomplishments,  which  did  not 
take  overlong  to  learn,  enhanced  the  natural 
value  of  the  American  artilleryman.  He  be- 
came, in  a  short  time,  the  pride  of  the  army  and 
a  warmly  welcomed  mainstay  to  the  Allies. 

Major-General  Peyton  C.  March,  who  took 
the  artillery  to  France  and  commanded  them 
in  their  days  of  organization,  before  he  was 
called  back  to  be  Chief  of  Staff  at  Washington, 
was  always  credited,  by  his  men,  with  being 
three-fourths  of  the  reason  why  they  made 
such  a  showing.  General  March  always  cred- 
ited the  matter  to  his  men.  At  any  rate,  be- 
tween them  they  put  their  country's  best  foot 
foremost  for  the  first  year  of  America  in  France, 
and  they  served  as  optimism  centres  even  when 
distress  over  other  delays  threatened  the  stout- 
est hearts. 


CHAPTER  IX 
THE  EYES  OF  THE  ARMY 

,4  MERICA'S  beginnings  in  the  air  service 
jT\  were  pretty  closely  kin  to  her  other  be- 
ginnings— she  furnished  the  men  and  took  over 
the  apparatus.  And  although  by  September 
1,  1917,  she  had  large  numbers  of  aviators  in 
the  making  in  France,  they  were  flying — or 
aspiring  to — in  French  schools,  under  American 
supervision,  with  French  machines  and  French 
instructors. 

There  existed,  in  prospect,  and  already  in 
detailed  design,  several  enormous  flying-fields, 
to  be  built  and  equipped  by  America,  as  well  as 
*half  a  dozen  big  repair-shops,  and  one  gigantic  %* 
'combination  repair-shop,  assembling-shop,  and 
manufacturing  plant. 

But  in  the  autumn,  when  there  were  aviators 
waiting  in  France  to  go  up  that  very  day,  there 
was  no  waiting  on  fields  trimmed  by  America. 

When  the  main  school,  under  American  super- 

107 


108  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

vision,  had  filled  to  overflowing,  the  remaining 
probationers  were  scattered  among  the  French 
schools  under  French  supervision.  Meanwhile, 
the  engineers  and  stevedores  shared  the  work  of 
constructing  "the  largest  aviation-field  in  the 
world'*  in  central  France. 

It  was  once  true  of  complete  armies  that 
they  could  be  trained  to  warfare  in  then*  own 
home  fields,  and  then  sent  to  whatever  part  of 
the  world  happened  to  be  in  dispute,  and  they 
required  no  more  additional  furbishing  up  than 
a  short  rest  from  the  journey.  That  is  no  longer 
true  of  anything  about  an  army  except  the  air 
service,  and  it  isn't  literally  true  of  them.  But 
they  approach  it. 

So  it  was  practicable  to  give  the  American 
aviators  nine-tenths  of  their  training  at  home, 
and  leave  the  merest  frills  to  a  few  spare  days  in 
France.  This,  of  course,  takes  no  account  of 
the  first  weeks  at  the  battle-front,  which  are 
only  nominally  training,  since  in  the  course  of 
them  a  flier  may  well  have  to  battle  for  his  life, 
and  often  does  catch  a  German,  if  he  chances 
on  one  as  untutored  as  himself. 

The  French  estimate  of  the  necessary  time  to 


THE  EYES  OF  THE  ARMY  109 

make  an  aviator  is  about  four  months  before 
he  goes  up  on  the  line,  and  about  four  months 
in  patrol,  on  the  line,  before  he  is  a  thoroughly 
capable  handler  of  a  battle-plane.  They  cap 
that  by  saying  that  an  aviator  is  born,  not  made, 
anyway,  and  that  "all  generalizations  about 
them  are  untrue,  including  this  one." 

The  air  policy  of  France,  however,  was  in  a 
state  of  great  fluidity  at  this  time.  They  were 
not  prepared  to  lay  down  the  law,  because  they 
were  in  the  very  act  of  giving  up  their  own 
romantic,  adventurous  system  of  single-man 
combat,  and  were  borrowing  the  German  sys- 
tem of  squadron  formation.  They  were  re- 
luctant enough  to  accept  it,  let  alone  acknowl- 
edge their  debt  to  the  Germans.  But  the  old 
knight-errantry  of  the  air  could  not  hold  up 
against  the  new  mass  attacks.  And  the  French 
are  nothing  if  not  practical. 

Even  their  early  war  aviators  had  prudence 
dinned  into  them — that  prudence  which  does 
not  mean  a  niggardliness  of  fighting  spirit, 
but  rather  an  abstaining  from  foolhardiness. 

Each  aviator  was  warned  that  if  he  lost  his 
life  before  he  had  to,  he  was  not  only  squander- 


110  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

ing  his  own  greatest  treasure,  but  he  was  leav- 
ing one  man  less  for  France. 

This  was  the  philosophy  of  the  training- 
school.  If  the  French  were  impatient  with  a 
flier  who  lost  his  life  to  the  Germans  through 
excess  of  friskiness,  they  were  doubly  so  at  the 
flier  who  endangered  his  life  at  school  through 
heedlessness. 

"If  you  pull  the  wrong  lever,"  they  said, 
"y°u  will  kill  a  man  and  wreck  a  machine. 
Your  country  cannot  afford  to  pay,  either,  for 
your  fool  mistakes." 

But  there  their  dogma  ended.  Once  the  flier 
had  learned  to  handle  his  machine,  his  further 
behavior  was  in  the  hands  of  American  officers 
solely,  and  these,  he  found,  were  stored  with 
several  very  definite  ideas. 

The  first  of  these — the  most  marked  distinc- 
tion between  the  French  system  and  the  Ameri- 
can— was  that  all  American  aviators  should 
know  the  theories  of  flying  and  most  of  its 
mathematics. 

Concerning  these  things  the  French  cared  not 
a  hang. 

Neither    did    the    American    aviators.     But 


THE  EYES  OF  THE  ARMY  111 

they  toed  the  mark  just  the  same,  and  many  a 
youngster  gnawed  his  pencil  indoors  and  cursed 
the  fate  that  had  placed  him  with  a  country  so 
finicky  about  air-currents  on  paper  and  so  in- 
different to  the  joys  of  learning  by  ear. 

The  Americans  accepted  from  the  beginning 
the  edict  on  squadron  flying.  It  was  as  much 
a  part  of  their  training  as  field-manoeuvres  for 
the  infantry.  And  because  they  had  no  golden 
days  of  derring-do  to  look  back  upon,  they  did 
less  grumbling.  Besides,  there  was  always  the 
chance  of  getting  lost,  and  patrols  offered  some 
good  opportunities  to  the  venturesome. 

The  air  service  had  at  this  time  an  extra  dis- 
tinction. They  were  the  only  arm  of  America's 
service  that  had  really  impressed  the  Germans. 
The  German  experts,  as  they  spoke  through 
their  newspapers,  were  contemptuous  of  the 
army  and  all  its  works.  They  maintained  that 
it  would  be  impossible  for  American  transports 
to  bring  more  than  half  a  million  men  to  France, 
if  they  tried  forever,  because  the  submarines 
would  add  to  the  inherent  difficulties,  and  make 
"American  participation"  of  less  actual  men- 
ace than  that  of  Roumania. 


OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

The  Frankfurter  Zeitung  said:  "There  is  no 
doubt  that  the  Entente  lay  great  stress  on 
American  assistance  on  this  point  (air  warfare). 
Nor  do  we  doubt  that  the  technical  resources 
of  the  enemy  will  achieve  brilliant  work  in  this 
branch.  But  all  this  has  its  limits  ...  in  this 
field,  superiority  in  numbers  is  by  no  means  de- 
cisive. Quality  and  the  men  are  what  decide." 

Major  Hoffe,  of  the  German  General  Staff, 
wrote  in  the  Weser  Zeitung:  "The  only  Ameri- 
can help  seriously  to  be  reckoned  with  is  aerial 
aid." 

There  was  a  quantity  of  such  talk.  Inci- 
dentally, the  same  experts  who  limited  Ameri- 
ca's troops  to  half  a  million  in  France  at  the 
most  indulgent  estimate,  said,  over  and  over, 
that  a  million  were  to  be  feared,  just  the  num- 
ber announced  to  be  in  France  by  President 
Wilson  one  year  from  the  time  of  the  first  de- 
barkation. 

The  aviators  worked  hard  enough  to  deserve 
the  German  honor.  In  the  French  school 
supervised  by  the  Americans  the  schedule  would 
have  furnished  Dickens  some  fine  material  for 
pathos. 


THE  EYES  OF  THE  ARMY  113 

The  day  began  at  4  A.  M.,  with  a  little  coffee 
for  an  eye-opener.  The  working-day  began  in 
the  fields  at  5  sharp.  If  the  weather  permitted 
there  were  flights  till  11,  when  the  pupil  knocked 
off  for  a  midday  meal.  He  was  told  to  sleep 
then  till  4  in  the  afternoon,  when  flying  re- 
commenced, and  continued  till  8.30.  The  rest 
of  his  time  was  all  his  own.  He  spent  it  get- 
ting to  bed. 

There  was  an  average  of  four  months  under 
this  regime.  The  flier  began  on  the  ground, 
and  for  weeks  he  was  permitted  no  more  than 
a  dummy  machine,  which  wobbled  along  the 
ground  like  a  broken-winged  duck,  and  this 
he  used  to  learn  levers  and  mechanics — those 
things  he  had  toiled  over  on  paper  before  he 
was  even  allowed  on  the  field. 

After  a  while  he  was  permitted  in  the  air 
with  an  instructor,  and  finally  alone.  There 
were  creditably  few  disasters.  For  months 
there  was  never  a  casualty.  But  if  a  man  had 
an  accident  it  was  a  perfectly  open-and-shut 
affair.  Either  he  ruined  himself  or  he  escaped. 
It  was  part  of  the  French  system  with  men  who 
escaped  to  send  them  right  back  into  the  air, 


114  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

as  soon  as  they  could  breathe,  so  that  the  acci- 
dent would  not  impair  their  flying-nerves. 

After  the  three  or  four  months  of  foundation 
work,  if  the  term  is  not  too  inept  for  flying,  the 
aviator  had  his  final  examination,  a  triangular 
flight  of  about  ninety  miles,  with  three  land- 
ings. The  landings  are  the  great  trick  of  fly- 
ing. Like  the  old  Irish  story,  it  isn't  the  fall- 
ing that  hurts  you,  it's  the  sudden  stop. 

If  the  pupil  made  his  landings  with  accuracy 
he  was  passed  on  to  the  big  school  at  Pau, 
where  acrobatics  are  taught.  The  flight  acro- 
bat was  the  ace,  the  armies  found.  And  no 
man  went  to  battle  till  he  could  do  spiral,  ser- 
pentine, and  hairpin  turns,  could  manage  a 
tail  spin,  and  "go  into  a  vrille" — a  corkscrew 
fall  which  permitted  the  flier  to  make  great 
haste  from  where  he  was,  and  yet  not  lose  con- 
trol of  his  machine,  at  the  same  time  that  he 
made  a  tricky  target  for  a  Boche  machine-gun . 

While  all  this  training  was  going  on  the  ranks 
of  American  aviators  were  filling  in  at  the  top. 
The  celebrated  Lafayette  Escadrille,  the  Amer- 
ican aviators  who  joined  the  French  Army  at 
the  beginning  of  the  war,  was  taken  into  the 


THE  EYES  OF  THE  ARMY  115 

American  Army  in  the  late  summer.  Then  all 
the  Americans  who  were  hi  the  French  avia- 
tion service  who  had  arrived  by  way  of  the 
Foreign  Legion  were  called  home. 

These  were  put  at  instructing  for  a  time,  then 
their  several  members  became  the  veteran  core 
of  later  American  squadrons.  This  air  unit  was 
finally  placed  at  12  fliers  and  250  men,  and  be- 
fore Christmas  there  was  a  goodly  number  of 
them,  a  number  not  to  be  told  till  the  care-free 
and  uncensored  days  after  the  war. 

By  the  beginning  of  the  new  year  American 
aviation-fields  were  taking  shape.  The  engi- 
neers had  laid  a  spur  of  railroad  to  link  the  larg- 
est of  them  with  the  main  arteries  of  communi- 
cation, and  the  labor  units  had  built  the  same 
sort  of  small  wooden  city  that  sprang  up  all 
over  America  as  cantonments. 

There  were  roomy  barracks,  a  big  hall  where 
chapel  services  alternated  with  itinerant  enter- 
tainers, a  little  newspaper  building,  plenty  of 
office-barracks  with  typewriters  galore  and  the 
little  models  on  which  aviators  learn  their  pre- 
liminary lessons. 

There  is  one  training-field  six  miles  long  and 


116  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

a  mile  and  a  half  wide,  where  all  kinds  of  in- 
struction is  going  on,  even  to  acrobatics. 

And  there  are  several  large  training-schools 
just  behind  the  fighting-lines,  which  have 
plenty  of  visiting  Germans  to  practise  on. 

The  enormity  of  the  American  air  programme 
made  it  a  little  unwieldy  at  first,  and  it  got  a 
late  start.  But  on  the  anniversary  of  its  be- 
ginning it  had  unmeasured  praise  from  official 
France,  and  even  before  that  the  French  news- 
papers had  loudly  sung  its  praises. 

The  American  aviator  as  an  individual  was  a 
success  from  the  beginning.  He  has  unsur- 
passed natural  equipment  for  an  ace,  and  his 
training  has  been  unprecedented^  thorough. 
And  he  has  dedicated  his  spirit  through  and 
through.  He  has  set  out  to  make  the  Germans 
see  how  wise  they  were  to  be  afraid. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  SCHOOLS  FOR  OFFICERS 

THE  first  economy  effected  after  the  broad 
sweep  of  training  was  in  swing  was  to 
segregate  the  officers  for  special  training,  and 
these  officers'  schools  fell  into  two  types. 

First,  there  was  the  camp  for  the  young  com- 
missioned officers  from  Plattsburg,  and  similar 
camps  in  America,  to  give  them  virtually  the 
same  training  as  the  soldiers  had,  but  at  a  sharper 
pace,  inclusive  also  of  more  theory,  and  to  in- 
crease their  executive  ability  in  action;  second, 
there  was  the  school  established  by  General 
Pershing,  late  in  the  year,  through  which  non- 
commissioned officers  could  train  to  take  com- 
missions. 

Of  the  first  type,  there  were  many,  of  the 
second,  only  one. 

The  camp  for  the  Plattsburg  graduates  which 
turned  its  men  first  into  the  fighting  was  one 
having  about  300  men,  situated  in  the  south  of 

117 


118  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

France,  where  the  weather  could  do  its  mini- 
mum of  impeding. 

These  youngsters  arrived  in  September,  and 
they  were  fighting  by  Thanksgiving.  The  next 
batch  took  appreciably  less  time  to  train,  partly 
because  the  organization  had  been  tried  out  and 
perfected  on  the  first  contingent,  and  partly 
because  they  were  destined  for  a  longer  stay  in 
the  line  before  they  were  hauled  back  for  train- 
ing others.  This  process  was  duplicated  in 
scores  of  schools  throughout  France,  so  that 
the  Expeditionary  Force,  what  with  its  re- 
organization to  require  fewer  officers,  and  its 
complementary  schools,  never  lacked  for  able 
leadership. 

The  first  school  was  under  command  of  Major- 
General  Robert  Bullard,  a  veteran  infantry 
officer  with  long  experience  in  the  Philippines 

ito  draw  on,  and  a  conviction  that  the  proper 

1 

time  for  men  to  stop  work  was  when  they 
dropped  of  exhaustion. 

His  officers  began  their  course  with  a  battalion 
of  French  troops  to  aid  them,  and  they  were  put 
into  company  formation,  of  about  75  men  to 
the  company,  just  as  the  humble  doughboy  was. 


THE  SCHOOLS  FOR  OFFICERS          119 

They  were  all  infantry  officers,  who  were  to 
take  command  as  first  and  second  lieutenants, 
but  they  specialized  in  whatever  they  chose. 
They  were  distinguished  by  their  hat-bands: 
white  for  bayonet  experts,  blue  for  the  liquid- 
fire  throwers,  yellow  for  the  machine-gunners, 
red  for  the  rifle-grenadiers,  orange  for  the  hand- 
grenadiers,  and  green  for  the  riflemen.  These 
indicated  roughly  the  various  things  they  were 
taught  there,  in  addition  to  trench-digging 
and  the  so-called  battalion  problems,  recogniza- 
ble to  the  civilian  as  team-work. 

Their  work  was  not  of  the  fireside  or  the  li- 
brary. It  was  the  joint  opinion  of  General 
Pershing,  General  Sibert,  and  General  Billiard 
that  the  way  to  learn  to  dig  a  trench  was  to  dig 
it,  and  that  nothing  could  so  assist  an  officer  in 
directing  men  at  work  as  having  first  done  the 
very  same  job  himself. 

They  had  a  permanent  barracks  which  had 
once  housed  young  French  officers,  in  pre-war 
days,  and  they  had  a  generous  Saturday-to- 
Monday  town  leave. 

These  two  benefactions,  plus  their  tidal  waves 
of  enthusiasm,  carried  them  through  the  her- 


120  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

culean  programme  devised  by  General  Bullard 
and  the  assisting  French  officers  and  troops. 

They  began,  of  course,  with  trench-digging, 
and  followed  with  live  grenades,  machine-guns, 
automatic  rifles,  service-shells,  bayonet  work, 
infantry  formation  for  attack,  and  gas  tests. 
Then  they  were  initiated  into  light  and  fire 
signals,  star-shells,  gas-bombing,  and  liquid  fire. 

Last,  they  came  in  on  the  rise  of  the  wave  of 
rifle  popularity,  and  trained  at  it  even  more 
intensively  than  the  first  of  the  doughboys. 
"The  rifle  is  the  American  weapon,"  was  Gen- 
eral Pershing's  constant  reiteration,  "and  it  has 
other  uses  than  as  a  stick  for  a  bayonet." 

But  efficacious  as  schools  of  this  type  were, 
there  was  a  need  they  did  not  meet,  a  need  first 
practical,  then  sentimental,  and  equally  valu- 
able on  both  counts. 

This  was  the  training  for  the  man  from  the 
ranks.  The  War  College  hi  America,  acting 
in  one  of  its  rare  snatches  of  spare  time,  had 
ordered  a  school  for  officers  in  America  to  which 
any  enlisted  man  was  eligible. 

General  Pershing  overhauled  this  arrange- 
ment in  one  particular:  he  framed  his  school  hi 


121 

France  so  that  nothing  lower  than  a  corporal 
could  enter  it.  This  was  on  the  theory  that  a 
man  in  the  ranks  who  had  ability  showed  it 
soon  enough,  and  was  rewarded  by  a  non-com, 
rank.  That  was  the  tune  when  the  way  ahead 
should  rightfully  be  opened  to  him. 

This  school  commenced  its  courses  just  be- 
fore Christmas,  with  everything  connected  with 
it  thoroughly  worked  out  first. 

The  commissions  it  was  entitled  to  bestow 
wrent  up  to  the  rank  of  major.  Scholars  entered 
it  by  recommendation  of  their  superior  officers, 
which  were  forwarded  by  the  commanders  of 
divisions  or  other  separate  units,  and  by  the 
chiefs  of  departmental  staffs,  to  the  com- 
mander-in-chief.  Before  these  recommenda- 
tions could  be  made,  the  record  of  the  applicant 
must  be  scanned  closely,  and  his  efficiency  rated 
— if  he  were  a  linesman,  by  fighting  quality,  and 
if  in  training  still  or  behind  the  lines,  by  efficiency 
in  all  other  duties. 

Then  he  entered  and  fared  as  it  might  hap- 
pen. If  he  succeeded,  his  place  was  waiting 
for  him  at  his  graduation,  as  second  lieutenant 
in  a  replacement  division. 


122  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

Enormous  numbers  of  these  replacement  divi- 
sions had  to  be  held  behind  the  lines.  From 
them,  all  vacancies  occurring  in  the  combat 
units  in  the  lines  were  filled.  And  rank,  within 
them,  proceeded  in  the  same  manner  as  in  any 
other  division.  Their  chief  difference  was  that 
there  was  no  limit  set  upon  the  number  of 
second  lieutenants  they  could  include,  so  that 
promotions  waited  mainly  for  action  to  earn 
them. 

Within  the  combat  units,  the  vacancies  were 
to  be  filled  two-thirds  by  men  in  line  of  promo- 
tion within  the  unit  itself,  and  one-third  from 
the  replacement  divisions. 

The  replacement  division's  higher  officers 
were  those  recovered  from  wounds,  who  had 
lost  their  place  in  line,  and  those  who  had  not 
yet  had  any  assignments.  To  keep  up  a  suffi- 
cient number  of  replacement  divisions,  the 
arriving  depot  battalions  were  held  to  belong 
with  them. 

This  school  was  located  near  the  fighting-line, 
and  its  instructors  were  preponderantly  Amer- 
ican. 

It  put  the  "  stars  of  the  general  into  the  pri- 


THE  SCHOOLS  FOR  OFFICERS  123 

vate's  knapsack,"  and  began  the  great  mill  of 
officer-making  that  the  experiences  of  other 
armies  had  shown  to  be  so  tragically  necessary. 
Needless  to  say,  it  was  packed  to  overflowing 
'from  its  first  day. 


CHAPTER  XI 
SOME  DISTINGUISHED  VISITORS 

SO  satisfactory  to  itself  was  the  progress  of 
the  American  Expeditionary  Force  hi  be- 
coming an  army  that  by  the  end  of  its  first 
month  of  training  it  was  ready  for  important 
visitors.  True,  the  first  to  come  was  one  who 
would  be  certain  to  understand  the  force's 
initial  difficulties,  and  who  would  also  be  able 
to  help  as  well  as  inspect.  He  was  General 
Petain,  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  French 
Army,  and  he  came  for  inspection  of  both  French 
and  American  troops  on  August  19,  three  days 
after  General  Sibert  had  had  a  family  field-day 
to  take  account  of  his  troops. 

General  Petain  came  down  with  General 
Pershing,  and  the  first  inspection  was  of  billets. 
Then  the  two  generals  reviewed  the  Alpine 
Chasseurs,  and  General  Petain  awarded  some 
medals  which  had  been  due  since  the  month 
before,  when  the  Blue  Devils  were  in  the  line. 

After  General  Petain 's  visit  with  the  Ameri- 

124 


SOME  DISTINGUISHED  VISITORS        125 

can  troops,  he  recommended  their  training  and 
their  physique  equally,  and  said:  "I  think 
the  American  Army  will  be  an  admirable  fight- 
ing force  within  a  short  time." 

This  was  also  General  Pershing's  day  for 
learning — his  first  session  with  one  of  his  most 
difficult  tasks.  He  had  to  follow  the  example 
of  General  Petain,  and  kiss  the  children,  and 
accept  the  bouquets  thrust  upon  both  generals 
by  all  the  little  girls  of  the  near-by  Vosges 
towns. 

General  Pershing  did  better  with  the  kissing 
as  his  day  wore  on,  though  its  foreignness  to 
his  experience  was  plain  to  the  end.  But  with 
the  bouquets  he  was  an  outright  failure.  Gra- 
ciously as  he  might  accept  them,  the  holding  of 
them  was  much  as  a  doughboy  might  hold  his 
first  armful  of  live  grenades. 

The  camp's  next  distinguished  visitor  was 
Georges  Clemenceau,  the  veteran  French  states- 
man who  was  soon  to  be  Premier  of  France. 
Clemenceau  saw  American  troops  that  day  for 
the  second  time,  the  first  having  been  when, 
as  a  young  French  senator,  he  watched  General 
Grant's  soldiers  march  into  Richmond. 


126  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

He  recalled  to  the  sons  and  grandsons  of 
those  dusty  warriors  how  inspired  a  sight  it  had 
been,  and  he  added  that  he  hoped  to  see  the 
present  generation  march  into  Berlin. 

When  Clemenceau  talked  to  the  doughboys, 
however,  he  had  more  than  old  memories  with 
which  to  stir  them.  He  has  a  graceful,  com- 
plete command  of  the  English  language,  in 
which  he  made  the  two  or  three  addresses  inter- 
spersed in  the  full  programme  of  his  stay. 

In  one  speech  M.  Clemenceau  said:  "I  feel 
highly  honored  at  the  privilege  of  addressing 
you.  I  know  America  well,  having  lived  in 
your  country,  which  I  have  always  admired, 
and  I  am  deeply  impressed  by  the  presence  of 
an  American  army  on  French  soil,  in  defense  of 
liberty,  right,  and  civilization,  against  the  bar- 
barians. My  mind  compares  this  event  to  the 
Pilgrim  Fathers,  who  landed  on  Plymouth  Rock, 
seeking  liberty  and  finding  it.  Now  their  chil- 
dren's children  are  returning  to  fight  for  the 
liberty  of  France  and  the  world. 

"You  men  have  come  to  France  with  disin- 
terested motives.  You  came  not  because  you 
were  compelled  to  come,  but  because  you  wished 


SOME  DISTINGUISHED  VISITORS        127 

to  come.  Your  country  always  had  love  and 
friendship  for  France.  Now  you  are  at  home 
here,  and  every  French  house  is  open  to  you. 
You  are  not  like  the  people  of  other  nations, 
because  your  motives  are  devoid  of  personal 
interest,  and  because  you  are  filled  with  ideals. 
You  have  heard  of  the  hardships  before  you, 
but  the  record  of  your  countrymen  proves  that 
you  will  acquit  yourselves  nobly,  earning  the 
gratitude  of  France  and  the  world." 

At  the  end  of  this  speech  General  Sibert  said 
to  the  men  who  had  heard  it:  "You  will  hence- 
forth be  known  as  the  Clemenceau  Battalion." 
That  was  the  first  unit  of  the  American  Army 
to  have  any  designation  other  than  its  number. 

Another  civilian  visitor  was  next,  though  he 
was  civilian  only  in  the  sense  that  he  had  neither 
task  nor  uniform  of  the  army.  He  was  Ray- 
mond Poincare,  President  of  the  French  Repub- 
lic, the  leader  of  the  French  "bitter-enders," 
and  sometimes  called  the  stoutest-hearted  sol- 
dier France  has  ever  had. 

President  Poincare  made  a  thorough  inspec- 
tion. He,  too,  began  with  the  billets,  but  he 
was  not  content  to  see  them  from  the  outside. 


128  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

In  fact,  the  first  that  one  new  major-general 
saw  of  him  was  the  half  from  the  waist  down, 
the  other  half  being  obscured  by  the  floor  of 
the  barn  attic  he  was  peering  into. 

President  Poincare  made  cheering  speeches 
to  the  men,  for  the  force  of  which  they  were 
obliged  to  rely  upon  his  gestures  and  his  into- 
nations, since  he  spoke  no  English.  But  his 
sense  was  not  wholly  lost  to  the  doughboys. 
At  the  peak  of  one  of  the  President's  most  soar- 
ing flights  those  who  understood  French  inter- 
rupted to  applaud  him. 

"What  did  he  say?"  asked  a  doughboy. 

"He  said  to  give  'em  hell,"  said  another. 

Fourth,  and  last,  of  the  great  Frenchmen, 
and  greatest,  from  the  soldier  point  of  view, 
was  Marshal  Joffre,  Marne  hero,  who  came  and 
spent  a  night  and  a  day  at  camp. 

It  was  mid-October  when  he  came,  and  weeks 
of  driving  rain  had  preceded  him.  In  spite  of 
their  gloom  over  the  weather,  the  doughboys 
were  eagerly  anticipating  the  visit  of  Joffre, 
and  they  were  wondering  if  the  man  of  many 
battles  would  think  them  worth  standing  in 
the  rain  to  watch. 


SOME  DISTINGUISHED  VISITORS        129 

A  detachment  of  French  buglers — buglers 
A^hom  the  Americans  could  never  sufficiently 
admire  or  imitate,  because  they  could  twirl  the 
bugles  between  beats  and  take  up  their  blasts 
with  neither  pitch  nor  time  lost — waited  outside 
the  quarters  where  the  marshal  was  to  spend 
the  night.  Half  an  hour  before  his  motor  came 
up  the  sun  broke  through  the  drizzle. 

"He  brings  it  with  him,"  said  a  doughboy. 

Marshal  Joffre  was  accompanied  by  General 
Pershing,  the  Pershing  personal  staff  and  Joffre's 
aide,  Lieutenant-Colonel  Jean  Fabry,  who  was 
with  the  French  Mission  in  America.  There 
were  ovations  in  all  the  French  villages  through 
which  they  passed,  and  there  were  uproarious 
cheers  when  the  party  reached  the  American 
officers  who  were  to  be  addressed  by  Marshal 
Joffre.  In  his  short  speech  he  said  that  America 
had  come  to  help  deliver  humanity  from  the 
yoke  of  German  insolence,  and  added:  "Let  us 
be  united.  Victory  surely  will  be  ours." 

Later,  after  picked  men  had  shown  Joffre 
what  they  could  do  with  grenades  and  bayo- 
nets, the  marshal  made  a  short  speech  to  them, 
telling  them  of  how  his  visit  to  America  had 


130  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

cheered  and  strengthened  him,  and  how  even 
greater  was  the  stimulation  he  had  had  from 
seeing  the  Americans  train  in  France. 

In  a  statement  to  the  Associated  Press  he 
said:  "I  have  been  highly  gratified  by  what  I 
have  seen  to-day.  I  am  confident  that  when 
the  time  comes  for  American  troops  to  go  into 
the  trenches  and  meet  the  enemy  they  will  give 
the  same  excellent  account  of  themselves  in 
action  as  they  did  to-day  in  practice." 

Northcliffe  came  in  December,  with  Colonel 
House  and  members  of  the  House  Mission.  He 
wrote  a  long  impression  of  his  visit  for  the 
English  at  home,  in  which  he  said  that  the  fin- 
est sight  he  saw  was  the  American  rifle  prac- 
tice, in  which  the  United  States  troops  did  ex- 
ceptionally well.  Then  he  praised  them  for 
their  mastery  of  the  British  type  of  trench 
mortar,  for  their  accuracy  with  grenades  and, 
most  significant  of  all,  for  their  able  handling 
of  themselves  after  the  bombs  were  thrown,  so 
that  they  should  have  a  maximum  of  safety  in 
battle.  The  doughboys  had  finally  learned 
their  hardest  lesson. 

Sir  Walter  Roper  Lawrence,  who  was  coming 


SOME  DISTINGUISHED  VISITORS        131 

to  America  on  a  special  war  mission,  went  to 
camp  in  early  December  to  see  how  the  dough- 
boys fared,  so  that  he  might  report  on  them  at 
home. 

He  had  just  inquired  of  General  Sir  Julian 
Byng,  who  had  accidentally  had  the  assistance 
of  some  American  engineers  at  Cambrai,  what 
they  should  be  valued  at,  and  Sir  Julian  had 
answered:  "Very  earnest,  very  modest,  and 
very  helpful." 

"I  must  say  that  is  my  opinion,  too.''  said 
Sir  Walter,  when  he  came  to  camp.  "They 
are  fine  fellows  to  look  at — as  good-looking  sol- 
diers as  any  man  might  wish  to  see.  They 
have  a  wonderfully  springy  step,  m^cn  more 
springy  than  one  sees  in  other  soldiers.  They 
are  clean,  well  set  up,  and  they  are  always 
cheerful.  They  are  splendidly  fed  and  well 
quartered,  and  they  are  desperately  keen  to 
learn,  and  as  desperately  keen  to  get  into  the 
thick  of  things.  If  they  seem  to  have  any 
worries  it  is  that  they  are  not  getting  in  as 
quickly  as  they  would  like  to. 

"The  American  troops  have  everywhere  made 
a  decidedly  favorable  impression.  I  am  ex- 


132  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

tremely  proud  of  my  British  citizenship,  I  have 
been  all  my  life,  but  if  I  were  an  American  I 
would  be  insufferably  proud  of  my  citizenship. 
In  all  history  there  is  nothing  that  approaches 
her  transporting  such  an  enormous  army  so 
great  a  distance  oversea  to  fight  for  an  ideal." 

After  the  new  year  W.  A.  Appleton,  secre- 
tary of  the  General  Federation  of  Trades  Unions 
in  England,  made  a  visit  to  France,  and  de- 
scribed the  American  camps  for  his  own  pub- 
lic through  the  Federation  organ. 

"I  see  everywhere,"  he  wrote,  "samples  of 
the  Ajnerican  armies  that  we  are  expecting 
will  enable  the  Allies  to  clear  France  of  the 
Germans.  Most  of  the  men  are  fine  specimens 
of  humanity,  and  those  with  whom  I  spoke 
showed  no  signs  of  braggadocio,  too  frequently 
attributed  to  America.  They  were  quiet,  well- 
spoken  fellows,  fully  alive  to  the  seriousness  of 
the  task  they  have  undertaken,  and  they  ap- 
parently have  but  one  regret — that  they  had 
not  come  into  the  war  soon  enough.  It  was 
pleasant  to  talk  to  these  men  and  to  derive 
encouragement  from  their  quiet,  unobtrusive 
strength." 


SOME  DISTINGUISHED  VISITORS        133 

These  were  the  things  which  were  playing 
upon  public  opinion  in  France  and  England, 
reinforcing  the  good-will  with  which  the  first 
American  soldiers  were  welcomed  there. 

When  United  States  soldiers  paraded  again 
in  the  streets  of  London,  late  in  the  spring  of 
1918,  and  when  they  marched  down  the  new 
Avenue  du  President  Wilson  in  Paris,  on  July 
4,  1918,  the  greetings  to  them  had  lost  in 
hysteria  and  grown  in  depth,  till  the  magnitude 
of  the  demonstrations  and  the  quality  of  them 

drew  amazement  from  the  oldest  of  the  old 

• 

stagerg. 


CHAPTER  XH 

THE  MEN  WHO  DID  EVERYTHING 

IF  the  American  Expeditionary  Force  had 
landed  in  the  middle  of  the  Sahara  Desert 
instead  of  France,  it  would  not  have  been  under 
greater  necessity  to  do  things  for  itself,  and 
immediately.  For  even  where  the  gallant 
French  were  entirely  willing  to  pull  their  belts 
in  one  more  notch  and  make  provision  for  the 
newcomers,  the  moral  obligation  not  to  permit 
their  further  sacrifice  was  enormous.  And 
although,  as  it  happened,  there  were  many 
things,  at  first,  in  which  the  A.  E.  F.  was  obliged 
to  ask  French  aid,  this  number  was  speedily  cut 
down  and  finally  obliterated. 

The  men  on  whom  fell  the  largest  burden  of 
making  American  troops  self-sufficing  in  the 
first  half-year  of  war,  were  the  nine  regiments 
of  engineers  recruited  in  nine  chief  cities  of 
America  before  General  Pershing  sailed.  They 
were  officered  to  a  certain  extent  by  Regular 
Army  engineers,  but  more  by  railroad  officials 

134 


THE  MEN  WHO  DID  EVERYTHING     135 

who  were  recruited  at  the  same  time  from  all 
the  large  railroads  of  America. 

And  they  operated  what  roads  they  found, 
and  built  more,  till  finally,  after  a  year,  during 
which  they  had  assistance  from  the  army  en- 
gineers and  a  fair  number  of  labor  and  special 
units,  they  had  created  in  France  a  railroad 
equal  to  any  one  of  the  middle-sized  roads  of 
long  standing  in  this  country,  with  road-beds, 
rolling-stock,  and  equipment  equal  to  the  best, 
and  railway  terminals  which,  in  the  case  of  one 
of  their  number,  rivalled  the  port  of  Hamburg. 

These  were  the  men  who  were  first  to  arrive 
in  Europe  after  General  Pershing,  who  beat 
them  over  by  only  a  few  days.  They  were  not 
fighting  units,  so  that  they  did  not  dim  the  glory 
of  the  Regulars,  though  they  had  the  honor  to 
carry  the  American  army  uniform  first  through 
the  streets  of  London. 

They  were  the  first  of  the  army  in  the  battle- 
line,  too,  though  again  their  civilian  pursuit, 
though  failing  to  serve  to  protect  them  against 
German  attack,  deprived  them  of  the  flag- 
flying  and  jubilation  that  attended  the  inf an  try- 
men  and  artillerymen  in  late  October. 


136  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

But  though  their  public  honor  was  so  limited, 
their  private  honor  with  the  Expeditionary 
Force  was  without  stint.  It  was  "the  engineers 
here*'  and  "the  engineers  there"  till  it  must 
have  seemed  to  them  that  they  were  carrying 
the  burden  of  the  entire  world. 

On  May  6,  1917,  the  War  Department  issued 
this  statement:  "The  War  Department  has 
sent  out  orders  for  the  raising,  as  rapidly  as 
possible,  of  nine  additional  regiments  of  engi- 
neers which  are  destined  to  proceed  to  France  at 
the  earliest  possible  moment,  for  work  on  the 
lines  of  communication.  .  .  .  All  details  re- 
garding the  force  will  be  given  out  as  fast  as 
compatible  with  the  best  public  interests." 

The  recruiting-points  were  New  York,  Chi- 
cago, St.  Louis,  Boston,  Pittsburgh,  Detroit, 
Atlanta,  San  Francisco,  and  Philadelphia.  It 
was  the  job  of  each  city  to  provide  a  regiment. 
And  it  became  the  job  of  the  great  railway 
brotherhoods  to  see  that  neither  the  kind  nor 
the  number  of  men  accepted  would  cripple  the 
railways  at  home. 

The  War  Department  asked  for  12,000  men, 
and  had  offers  of  about  four  times  that  many. 


THE  MEN  WHO  DID  EVERYTHING     137 

The  result  was,  of  course,  that  the  9  regiments 
were  men  of  magnificent  physique  and  sterling 
equipment.  One  regiment  boasted  125  mem- 
bers who  measured  more  than  6  feet. 

Their  first  official  task  was  to  help  to  repair 
and  man  the  French  railways  leading  up  to  the 
lines,  carrying  food  for  men  and  guns. 

Their  next  was  to  build  and  man  the  rail- 
ways which  were  to  connect  the  American  sea- 
port with  the  training-camps,  and  last,  with  the 
fighting-line  itself. 

The  promise  of  immediate  action  in  France 
was  fulfilled  to  the  letter.  Two  months  from 
the  day  the  recruiting  began,  the  "Lucky  13th," 
the  regiment  recruited  in  Chicago,  landed  in  a 
far-away  French  town,  whose  inhabitants  leaned 
out  of  their  windows  in  the  late,  still  night,  to 
throw  them  roses  and  whispers  of  good  cheer — 
anything  louder  than  whispers  being  under  a 
ban  because  of  the  nearness  to  the  front — and 
the  day  following,  with  French  crews  at  their 
elbows,  they  were  running  French  trains  up 
and  down  the  last  line  of  communications. 

These  were  men  who  had  years  of  railroading 
behind  them.  Many  of  them  were  officered  by 


138  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

the  same  men  who  had  been  their  directors  in 
civil  life.  It  was  no  uncommon  thing  to  hear 
a  private  address  his  captain  by  his  first  name. 
One  day  a  private  said  to  his  captain.  "Bill, 
you  got  all  the  wrong  dope  on  this,"  to  which 
the  captain  replied  severely:  "I  told  you  before 
about  this  discipline — if  you  want  to  quarrel 
with  my  orders,  you  call  me  mister." 

But  military  discipline  was  never  a  real  love 
with  the  engineers.  "  What's  military  discipline 
to  us  ?  We  got  Rock  Island  discipline,"  said  a 
brawny  first  lieutenant,  when,  because  he  was  a 
fellow  passenger  on  a  train  with  a  correspon- 
dent, he  felt  free  to  speak  his  mind. 

"I  won't  say  it's  not  all  right  in  its  way,  but 
it's  not  a  patch  on  what  we  have  in  a  big  yard. 
A  man  obeys  in  his  sleep,  for  he  knows  if  he 
don't  somebody's  life  may  have  to  pay  for  it — 
not  his  own,  either,  which  would  make  it  worse. 
That's  Rock  Island.  But  it  don't  involve  any 
salutin',  or  'if-you-pleasin'.'  If  my  fellows  say 
'Torn'  I  don't  pay  any  attention,  unless  there's 
some  officer  around." 

This  attitude  toward  discipline  characterizes 
all  the  special  units  to  a  certain  degree,  though 


THE  MEN  WHO  DID  EVERYTHING     139 

the  engineers  somewhat  more  than  the  rest, 
for  the  reason  that  they  had  to  offer  not  a  mere 
negation  of  discipline  but  a  substitute  of  their 
own. 

But,  whatever  their  sentiments  towrard  their 
incidental  job  as  soldiers,  there  was  no  mistaking 
their  zest  for  their  regular  job  of  railroading. 

They  found  the  railways  of  France  in  amaz- 
ingly fine  condition,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
they  had,  many  of  them,  been  built  purely  for 
war  uses,  and  under  the  pressure  inevitable  in 
such  work.  Those  behind  the  British  lines  were 
equally  fine. 

As  soon  as  the  American  engineers  appeared 
in  the  communication-trains,  their  troubles 
with  the  Germans  began.  On  the  second  run 
of  the  "Lucky  13th"  men,  a  German  airplane 
swept  down  and  flew  directly  over  the  engine 
for  twenty  minutes,  taking  strict  account. 

Then  they  began  to  bomb  the  trams,  and 
many  a  time  the  crews  had  to  get  out  and  sit 
under  the  trains  till  the  raid  was  over. 

The  engineers  kept  their  non-combatant  char- 
acter till  after  the  December  British  thrust  at 
Cambrai,  when  half  a  hundred  of  them,  work- 


140  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

ing  with  their  picks  and  shovels  behind  the 
lines,  suddenly  found  themselves  face  to  face 
with  German  counter-attacking  troops,  and  had 
to  fight  or  run.  The  engineers  snatched  up 
rides  and  such  weapons  as  they  could  from  fallen 
soldiers,  and  with  these  and  their  shovels  helped 
the  British  to  hold  their  line. 

The  incident  was  one  of  the  most  brilliant  of 
the  year,  partly  because  it  was  dramatically 
unexpected,  partly  because  it  permitted  the 
Americans  to  prove  their  readiness  to  fight,  in 
whatever  circumstances.  The  spectacle  of  fifty 
peaceful  engineers  suddenly  turned  warriors  of 
pick  and  shovel  was  used  by  the  journals  of 
many  countries  to  demonstrate  what  manner 
of  men  the  Americans  were. 

But  the  work  for  British  and  French,  on  their 
strategic  railways,  was  not  to  continue  for  long. 
The  great  American  colony  was  already  on 
blue-print,  and  the  despatches  from  Washington 
were  estimating  that  many  millions  would  have 
to  be  spent  for  the  work. 

The  annual  report  of  Major-General  William 
Black,  chief  of  engineers,  which  was  made 
public  in  December,  stated  that  almost  a  billion 


THE  MEN  WHO  DID  EVERYTHING     141 

would  be  needed  for  engineering  work  in  France 
in  1919,  if  the  work  then  in  progress  were  to  be 
concluded  satisfactorily. 

General  Black's  report  showed  that  equip- 
ment for  70  divisions,  or  approximately  1,000,000 
men,  had  been  purchased  within  350  hours  after 
Congress  declared  war,  including  nearly  9,000,- 
000  articles,  among  them  4  miles  of  pontoon 
bridges. 

Every  unit  sent  to  France  took  its  full  equip- 
ment along,  and  the  cost  of  the  "railroad  en- 
gineers" alone  was  more  than  $12,000,000. 

Not  long  after  the  men  were  running  the 
French  and  British  trains,  they  were  building 
their  lines  in  Flanders,  in  the  interims  of  building 
the  American  lines  from  sea  to  camp. 

The  building  was  through,  and  over,  such  mud 
as  passes  description.  The  engineers  tell  a 
story  of  having  passed  a  hat  on  a  road,  and  on 
picking  it  up,  found  that  there  was  a  soldier 
under  it.  They  dug  him  out.  "But  I  was  on 
horseback,"  the  soldier  protested. 

The  tracks  were  rather  floated  than  built. 
Where  the  shell  fire  was  heavy,  the  men  could 
only  work  a  few  hours  each  day,  under  barrage 


142  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

of  artillery  or  darkness,  and  they  were  soon 
making  speed  records. 

"The  fight  against  the  morass  is  as  stern  and 
difficult  as  the  fight  against  the  Boche,"  said  an 
engineer,  speaking  of  the  Flanders  tracks.  One 
party  of  men,  in  an  exposed  position,  laid  180 
feet  of  track  in  a  record  time,  and  left  the  other 
half  of  the  job  till  the  following  day.  When 
they  came  back,  they  found  that  their  work 
had  been  riddled  with  shell-holes,  whereat  they 
fell  to  and  finished  the  other  half  and  repaired 
the  first  half  in  the  same  time  as  had  starred 
them  on  the  first  day's  job. 

It  was  not  long  till  they  had  a  European 
reputation. 

The  tracks  they  were  to  lay  for  America, 
though  they  were  far  enough  from  the  Flanders 
mud,  had  a  sort  of  their  own  to  offer.  The 
terminal  was  built  by  tremendous  preliminaries 
with  the  suction-dredge.  The  long  lines  of 
communication  between  camp  and  sea  were 
varyingly  difficult,  some  of  them  offering  nothing 
to  speak  of,  some  of  them  abominable.  The 
little  spur  railways  leading  to  the  hospitals, 
warehouses,  and  subsidiary  training-camps 


THE  MEN  WHO  DID  EVERYTHING     143 

which  lay  afield  from  the  main  line  were  more 
quickly  done. 

In  addition  to  all  these  things,  the  engineers 
were  the  handy  men  of  France.  They  picked 
up  some  of  the  versatility  of  the  Regular  Army 
engineers,  whose  accomplishments  are  never 
numbered,  and  they  built  hospitals  and  bar- 
racks, too,  in  spare  time,  and  they  laid  water- 
ways, and  helped  out  in  General  Pershing's 
scheme  to  put  the  inland  waterways  of  France 
to  work.  The  canal  system  was  finally  used  to 
carry  all  sorts  of  stores  into  the  interior  of 
France,  and  before  the  engineers  were  finished 
the  army  was  getting  its  goods  by  rail,  by  motor, 
and  by  boat,  though  it  was  not  till  late  in  the 
year  that  the  transportation  machinery  could 
avoid  great  jams  at  the  port. 

The  engineers  were,  from  first  to  last,  the  most 
picturesque  Americans  in  France.  They  came 
from  the  great  yards  and  terminals  of  East  and 
West,  they  brought  their  behavior,  their  pe- 
culiar flavor  of  speech,  and  their  efficiency  with 
them,  and  they  refused  to  lose  any  of  them,  no 
matter  what  the  outside  pressure. 

"It's  a  great  life,"  said  one  of  them  from  the 


144  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

Far  West,  "and  I  may  say  it's  a  blamed  sight 
harder  than  shooing  hoboes  off  the  cars  back 
home.  But  there's  times  when  I  could  do  with 
a  sight  of  the  missus  and  the  kids  and  the  Ford. 
If  it  takes  us  long  to  lick  'em,  it  won't  be  my 
fault." 


CHAPTER 
BEHIND  THE  LINES 

THE  difficulty  of  describing  the  American 
organization  behind  the  lines  in  France  lies 
in  the  fact  that  the  story  is  nowhere  near  fin- 
ished. The  end  of  the  first  year  saw  huge 
things  done,  but  huger  ones  still  in  the  do- 
ing, and  the  complete  and  the  incomplete  so 
blended  that  there  was  almost  no  point  at  which 
a  finger  could  be  laid  and  one  might  say: 
"They  have  done  this." 

But  at  the  end  of  the  first  year  all  the  founda- 
tions were  down  and  the  corner-stones  named', 
and  though  much  necessary  secrecy  still  en- 
velops the  actual  facts,  something  at  least  can 
be  told. 

America  could  no  more  move  direct  from  home 
to  the  line  in  the  matter  of  her  supplies  than  she 
could  in  that  of  her  men.  And  it  was  at  her  in- 
termediate stopping-point,  in  both  cases,  that 
her  troubles  lay.  It  was,  as  Belloc  put  it,  the 

145 


146  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

problem  of  the  hour-glass.  Plenty  of  room  at 
both  ends  and  plenty  of  material  were  invali- 
dated by  the  little  strait  between. 

It  was  not  a  month  from  the  time  of  the  first 
landing  of  troops,  in  June,  1917,  before  the 
wharfs  of  the  ports  chiefly  used  by  incoming 
American  supplies  were  stacked  high  with  un- 
moved cases. 

The  transportation  men  worked  with  might 
and  main,  but  the  Shipping  Board  at  home, 
under  the  goad  of  restless  and  anxious  people, 
was  sending  and  sending  the  equipment  to  fol- 
low the  men.  And  once  landed,  the  supplies 
found  neither  roof  to  cover  them  nor  means  to 
carry  them  on. 

This  was  the  point  at  which  General  Pershing 
began  to  lament  to  Washington  over  his  scarcity 
of  stevedores,  and  labor  units,  and  soon  there- 
after was  the  point  at  which  he  got  them. 

On  September  14,  1917,  W.  W.  Atterbury, 
vice-president  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad, 
was  appointed  director-general  of  transportation 
of  the  United  States  Expeditionary  Force  in 
France,  and  was  given  the  rank  of  brigadier- 
general.  General  Atterbury  was  already  in 


BEHIND  THE  LINES  147 

France,  and  had  been  offering  such  expert 
advice  and  assistance  to  General  Pershing  as 
his  civilian  capacity  would  permit.  With  his 
appointment  came  the  announcement  of  others, 
giving  him  the  assistance  of  many  well-known 
American  railroad  men. 

When  the  First  Division  reached  France  it 
was  discovered  that  it  required  four  tons  of 
tonnage  to  provide  for  each  man.  That  meant 
80,000  tons  for  each  division,  which,  in  the 
figures  of  the  railroad  man,  meant  eighty  trains 
of  1,000  tons  capacity  for  every  division. 

For  the  first  200,000  men  in  France,  who 
formed  the  basis  for  the  first  railroad  reckoning, 
800  trains  were  necessary. 

Obviously,  these  trains  could  not  be  taken 
from  the  already  burdened  French.  Obviously, 
they  could  not  tax  further  the  trackage  in 
France,  though  the  trains  and  engines  shipped 
had  essential  measurements  to  conform  to  the 
French  road-beds,  so  that  interchange  was  easy. 
Still  more  obviously,  the  trains  could  not  be 
made  in  this  country  and  rolled  onto  the  decks 
of  ships  for  transportation. 

So  that  before  the  first  soldier  packed  his 


148  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

first  kit  on  his  way  to  camp  the  A.  E.  F. 
required  railway-tracks,  enormous  reception- 
wharfs,  assembling-plants  and  factories,  and 
arsenals  and  warehouses  beyond  number. 

The  only  things  which  America  could  buy 
in  France  were  those  which  could  be  grown 
there,  by  women  and  old  men  and  children, 
and  those  which  were  already  made.  The  only 
continuing  surplus  product  of  France  was  big 
guns,  which  resulted  from  their  terrific  speciali- 
zation in  munition-plants  during  the  war's  first 
three  years. 

To  find  out  what  could  legitimately  be 
bought  in  France,  and  to  buy  it,  paying  no 
more  for  it  than  could  be  avoided  by  wise  pur- 
chasing, General  Pershing  created  a  General 
Purchasing  Board  in  Paris  late  in  August.  This 
board  had  a  general  purchasing  agent  at  its 
head,  who  was  the  representative  of  the  com- 
mander-in-chief,  and  he  acted  in  concert  with 
similar  boards  of  the  other  Allied  armies.  His 
further  job  was  to  co-ordinate  all  the  efforts  of 
subordinate  purchasing  agents  throughout  the 
army.  The  chief  of  each  supply  department 
and  of  the  Red  Cross  and  the  Y.  M.  C.  A. 


BEHIND  THE  LINES  149 

named  purchasing  agents  to  act  under  this 
board. 

It  was  not  long  till  this  board  was  supervising 
the  spending  of  many  millions  of  dollars  a 
month,  which  gives  a  fair  estimate  of  what  the 
total  expenditure,  both  at  home  and  abroad, 
had  to  be. 

As  a  case  in  point,  a  single  branch  of  this 
board  bought  in  France,  the  first  fortnight  of 
November,  26,000  tons  of  tools  and  equip- 
ment, 4,000  tons  of  railway-ties,  and  160  tons 
of  cars.  The  cost  was  something  over  $3,000,- 
000.  These  purchases  alone  saved  the  total 
cargo  space  of  20  vessels  of  1,600  tons  each. 

The  General  Purchasing  Board  adopted  the 
price-fixing  policy  created  at  Washington,  in 
which  it  was  aided  by  the  shrewdest  business 
heads  among  the  British  and  French  authori- 
ties. 

This  board  also  had  power  to  commandeer 
ships,  when  they  had  to — notably  in  the  case 
of  bringing  shipments  of  coal  from  England, 
where  it  was  fairly  plentiful,  to  France,  where 
there  was  almost  none. 

A  second  scheme  for  co-ordination  put  into 


150  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

effect  by  General  Pershing  was  a  board  at  which 
heads  of  all  army  departments  could  meet  and 
act  direct,  without  the  necessity  of  going 
through  the  commander-in-chief.  When  the 
quartermaster's  department  made  its  budgets, 
the  co-ordination  department  went  over  them 
and  revised  the  estimates  downward,  or  drafted 
work  or  supplies  from  some  other  department 
with  a  surplus,  or  redistributed  within  the 
quartermaster's  stores,  perhaps  even  granted 
the  first  requests.  But  there  was  a  vast  saving 
throughout  the  army  zone. 

The  problem  of  America's  "behind  the  lines," 
including  as  it  did  the  creating  of  every  phase 
of  transportation,  from  trackage  to  terminals, 
and  then  providing  the  things  to  transport,  not 
only  for  an  army  growing  into  the  millions, 
but  for  much  of  civilian  France,  was  one  which, 
all  wise  observers  said,  was  the  greatest  of  the 
war.  Just  how  staggering  were  these  difficul- 
ties must  not  be  told  till  later,  but  surmises  are 
free.  And  the  praise  for  overcoming  them 
which  poured  from  British  and  French  on- 
lookers had  the  value  and  authority  of  coming 
from  men  who  had  themselves  been  through 


BEHIND  THE  LINES  151 

like  crises,  and  who  knew  every  obstacle  in  the 
way  of  the  Americans. 

But  if  the  preparatory  stages  must  be  abridged 
in  the  telling,  there  is  no  ban  on  a  little  expan- 
siveness  as  to  what  was  finally  done. 

Within  a  year  American  engineers  and  labor- 
ers and  civilians  working  behind  the  lines  had 
made  of  the  waste  lands  around  an  old  French 
port  a  line  of  modern  docks  where  sixteen  heavy 
cargo-vessels  could  rest  at  the  same  time,  being 
unloaded  from  both  sides  at  once  at  high  speed, 
by  the  help  of  lighters.  These  docks  were 
made  by  a  big  American  pile-driver,  which  in 
less  than  a  year  had  driven  30,000  piles  into 
the  marshy  ooze,  and  made  a  foundation  for 
enormous  docks. 

Just  behind  the  docks  is  a  plexus  of  rail- 
way-lines which,  what  with  incoming  and 
outgoing  tracks  and  switches  and  side-lines, 
contains  200  miles  of  trackage  in  the  terminal 
alone. 

It  is  for  the  present  no  German's  business 
how  many  hundred  miles  of  double  and  triple 
track  lead  back  to  the  fighting-line,  and  it  is 
the  censor's  rule  that  one  must  tell  nothing  a 


152  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

German  shouldn't  know.  But  there  is  plenty 
of  track,  figures  or  no  figures. 

Equal  preparation  has  been  made  for  such 
supplies  as  must  remain  temporarily  at  the 
docks. 

There  are  150  warehouses,  most  of  them 
completed,  each  400  by  50  feet,  and  each  with 
steel  walls  and  top  and  concrete  floors.  When 
the  warehouses  are  finished  they  will  be  able 
to  hold  supplies  for  an  army  of  a  million  men 
for  thirty  days.  They  are  supplemented  by 
a  giant  refrigerating-plant,  with  an  enormous 
capacity,  which  is  served  by  an  ice-making  fac- 
tory with  an  output  of  500  tons  daily,  the  whole 
ice  department  being  operated  by  a  special 
"ice  unit"  of  the  army,  officially  called  Ice 
Plant  Company  301.  The  ice  department  also 
has  its  own  refrigerator-cars  for  delivering  its 
wares  frozen  to  any  part  of  France. 

To  provide  for  gun  appetites  as  abundantly 
as  for  human,  an  arsenal  was  begun  at  the 
same  point,  which,  when  completed,  will  have 
cost  a  hundred  million  dollars.  This  arsenal  and 
ordnance-depot  is  being  built  by  an  American 
firm,  at  the  request  of  the  French  Mission  in 


BEHIND  THE  LINES  153 

America,  who  vetoed  the  American  project  to 
give  the  work  to  French  contractors,  because 
of  the  man-shortage  in  France. 

It  has  been  built  under  the  direct  supervision 
of  the  War  Department,  and  was  specifically 
planned  so  that  it  might  in  time,  or  case  of 
need,  become  one  of  the  main  munition-dis- 
tribution centres  for  all  the  Allies.  Small  arms 
and  ammunition  are  stored  and  dispensed  there, 
while  big  guns  go  direct  from  French  fac- 
tories. 

Regiments  of  mechanical  and  technical  ex- 
perts were  constantly  being  recruited  in  Amer- 
ica for  this  work,  and  they  were  sent  by  the 
thousands  every  month  of  the  first  year.  Main- 
tenance of  the  ordnance-base  alone  requires  450 
officers  and  16,000  men. 

Included  in  the  arsenal  and  ordnance-depot 
are  a  gun-repair  shop,  equipped  to  reline  more 
than  800  guns  a  month,  a  carriage-repair  plant 
of  large  capacity,  a  motor-vehicle  repair-shop, 
able  to  overhaul  more  than  1,200  cars  a  month, 
a  small-arms  repair-shop,  ready  to  deal  with 
58,000  small  arms  and  machine-guns  a  month, 
a  shop  for  the  repair  of  horse  and  infantry  equip- 


154  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

ment,  and  a  reloading-plant,  capable  of  reload- 
ing 100,000  artillery-cartridges  each  day. 

The  assembling-shops  in  connection  with  the 
railroad  were  built  on  a  commensurate  scale. 
Even  in  an  incomplete  state  one  shop  was  able 
to  turn  out  twenty-odd  freight-cars  a  day,  of 
three  different  designs,  and  at  a  neighboring 
point  a  plant  for  assembling  the  all-steel  cars 
was  making  one  full  train  a  day.  The  locomo- 
tives were  assembled  in  still  a  third  place.  This 
will  have  turned  out  1,100  locomotives,  built 
and  shipped  flat  from  America,  at  the  end  of  its 
present  contract.  Already  a  third  of  this  work 
has  been  done. 

And  there  were,  of  course,  the  necessary  num- 
ber of  roundhouses,  and  the  like,  to  complete  the 
organization  of  the  seif -sufficient  railroad. 

Not  far  away  was  a  tremendous  assembling 
and  repair  plant  for  airplanes,  the  operators  of 
which  had  all  been  trained  in  the  French  fac- 
tories, so  that  they  knew  the  planes  to  the  last 
inner  bolthead. 

The  last  assembly -plant  was  far  from  least  in 
picturesqueness.  It  was  for  the  construction, 
from  numbered  pieces  shipped  from  Switzer- 


BEHIND  THE  LINES  155 

land,  of  3,500  wooden  barracks,  each  about  100 
feet  long  by  20  wide,  and  of  double  thickness 
for  protection  against  French  weather. 

The  most  amusing  of  the  incidental  depots 
was  called  the  Reclamation  Depot,  at  which 
the  numerous  articles  collected  on  the  battle- 
field by  special  salvage  units  were  overhauled 
and  refurbished,  or  altered  to  other  uses.  Noth- 
ing was  too  trifling  to  be  accepted.  The  "old- 
clo*  man"  of  No  Man's  Land  was  responsible 
for  an  amazing  amount  of  good  material,  made 
at  the  Reclamation  Depot  from  old  belts,  coat 
sleeves,  and  the  like.  Many  a  good  German 
helmet  went  back  to  the  "square-heads"  as 
American  bullets. 

In  the  same  American  district  there  was  a 
great  artillery  camp,  with  remount  stables,  con- 
taining thousands  of  horses  and  mules.  Under 
French  tutelage,  the  American  veterinarians 
had  learned  to  extract  the  bray  from  the  army 
mule,  reducing  his  far-carrying  silvery  cry  to  a 
mere  wheeze,  with  which  he  could  do  no  indis- 
creet informing  of  his  presence  near  the  battle- 
lines.  So  the  mule-hospital  was  one  of  the  busi- 
est spots  in  the  port. 


156  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

A  short  distance  from  the  port,  the  engineers 
built  a  20,000-bed  hospital,  the  largest  in  ex- 
istence, comprising  hundreds  of  little  one-story 
structures,  set  in  squares  over  huge  grounds, 
so  that  every  room  faced  the  out-of-doors. 

Between  the  port  and  the  hospital,  and  be- 
yond the  port  along  the  coast,  were  the  rest- 
camps,  the  receiving-camps,  and  a  huge  separate 
camp  for  the  negro  stevedores.  Near  enough 
to  be  convenient,  but  not  for  sociability,  were 
the  camps  for  the  German  prisoners,  who  put 
in  plenty  of  hard  licks  in  the  great  port-building. 

Midway  between  all  this  activity  at  the  coast 
and  the  training  and  fighting  activity  at  the 
fighting-line  there  was  what  figured  on  the  army 
charts  as  "Intermediate  Section,"  whose  com- 
manders were  responsible  for  the  daily  averaging 
of  supply  and  demand. 

In  the  intermediate  section,  linked  by  rail, 
were  the  supplementary  training-camps,  schools, 
base  hospitals,  rest-areas,  engineering  and  re- 
pair shops,  tank-assembling  plants,  ordnance- 
<lumps  and  repair-shops,  the  chief  storage  for 
"spare  parts,"  all  machinery  used  in  the 
army,  cold-storage  plants,  oil  and  petrol  depots, 


BEHIND  THE  LINES  157 

the  army  bakeries,  the  camouflage  centre,  and 
the  forestry  departments,  busy  with  fuel  for  the 
army  and  timber  for  the  engineers. 

The  achievement  of  the  first  year  was  liter- 
ally worthy  of  the  unstinted  praise  it  received. 
And  perhaps  its  finest  attribute  was  that  most 
of  it  was  permanent,  and  will  remain,  while 
France  remains,  as  America's  supreme  gift 
toward  her  post-war  recovery. 


CHAPTER  XIV 
FRANCE  AND  THE  MEDICOES 

THE  history  of  the  A.  E.  F.  will  be  in  most 
respects  the  history  of  resources  cunningly 
turned  to  new  ends,  of  force  redirected,  with 
some  of  its  erstwhile  uses  retained,  and  of  a 
colossal  adventure  in  making  things  do.  Where 
the  artillery  was  weak,  the  A.  E.  F.  eked  out 
with  the  coast-artillery.  Where  the  engineer 
corps  was  insufficient,  the  railroads  were  called 
on  for  special  units,  frankly  unmilitary.  A 
whole  citizenry  was  abruptly  turned  to  infantry. 
But  one  branch  of  the  service,  though  scarcely 
worthy  of  much  responsibility  when  the  war 
began,  was,  nevertheless,  the  one  most  thor- 
oughly prepared.  The  prize  service  was  the 
Medical  Corps,  and  it  was  in  this  state  of  aston- 
ishing preparedness  because  immediately  be- 
fore it  became  the  Medical  Corps,  it  had  been  the 
Red  Cross,  and  the  Red  Cross  knows  no  peace- 
times. 

The  question  of  what  is  Medical  Corps  and 

158 


FRANCE  AND  THE  MEDICOES          159 

what  is  Red  Cross  has  always  been  a  facer  for 
the  superficial  historian. 

Broadly  speaking,  the  base  hospitals  of  the 
army  are  organizations  recruited  and  equipped 
in  America  by  the  Red  Cross,  and  transported 
to  France,  where  they  become  units  of  the  army, 
under  army  discipline  and  direction,  and  sup- 
plied by  the  Medical  Corps  stores  except  in  cases 
where  these  are  inadvertently  lacking,  or  un- 
provided for  by  the  strictness  of  military  super- 
vision. In  any  case,  where  sufficient  supplies 
are  not  forthcoming  from  the  Medical  Corps, 
they  are  given  by  the  Red  Cross. 

This  is  the  Red  Cross  on  its  military  side.  In 
its  civilian  work,  which  is  extensive,  and  in  its 
recreational  work  it  carries  on  under  its  own 
name  and  by  its  own  authority.  Where  it 
divides  territory  with  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  the  divi- 
sion is  that  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  takes  the  well 
soldier  and  the  Red  Cross  the  sick  one,  when- 
ever either  has  time  on  his  hands. 

But  the  Medical  Corps  plus  the  Red  Cross 
created  between  them  a  branch  of  the  Ameri- 
can Army  in  France  which,  from  the  moment 
of  landing,  was  the  boast  of  the  nation. 


160  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

For  a  year  before  America  entered  the  war 
Colonel  Jefferson  Kean,  director-general  of  the 
military  department  of  the  American  Red 
Cross,  had  been  organizing  against  the  coming 
of  American  participation.  Within  thirty  days 
after  America's  war  declaration  Colonel  Kean 
announced  that  he  had  six  base  hospitals  in 
readiness  to  go  to  the  front,  and  within  another 
thirty  days  these  six  units  were  on  their  way, 
equipped  and  ready  to  step  into  the  French 
hospitals,  schools,  and  what-not,  waiting  to  re- 
ceive them,  and  to  do  business  as  usual  the  fol- 
lowing morning. 

The  six  were  organized  at  leading  hospitals 
and  medical  schools:  the  Presbyterian  Hospital 
of  New  York,  with  Doctor  George  E.  Brewer 
in  command;  the  Lakeside  Hospital,  Cleveland, 
with  Doctor  George  W.  Crile;  the  Medical 
School  of  Harvard  University,  with  Doctor 
Harvey  Gushing;  the  Pennsylvania  Hospital, 
Philadelphia,  with  Doctor  Richard  Harte;  the 
Medical  School  of  Northwestern  University, 
Evanston,  Illinois,  with  Doctor  Frederick  Bes- 
ley,  and  Washington  University  Hospital,  Saint 
Louis,  with  Doctor  Frederick  T.  Murphy. 


FRANCE  AND  THE  MEDICOES          161 

A  little  while  later  the  Postgraduate  unit 
went  from  New  York,  the  Roosevelt  Hospital 
unit  from  there,  and  the  Johns  Hopkins  unit 
from  Baltimore.  Many  others  followed  in  due 
time. 

These  hospital  units,  recruited  and  organized 
under  the  Red  Cross,  took  their  full  comple- 
ment of  surgeons,  physicians,  and  nurses.  All 
these  became  members  of  the  army  as  soon  as 
they  landed  in  France,  and  they  were  supple- 
mented, either  there  or  before  they  crossed, 
with  members  of  Medical  Corps,  enlisted  just 
after  America  entered  the  war. 

The  military  rank  of  the  physicians  and  sur- 
geons conformed  in  a  general  way  to  the  unoffi- 
cial rank  of  the  same  men  when  they  had 
worked  together  in  the  hospitals  from  which 
they  came.  There  were,  of  course,  some  ex- 
ceptions to  this  rule,  but  not  enough  to  make  it 
no  rule  at  all. 

It  was  true  of  the  medicoes,  as  it  was  of  the 
engineers,  that  they  took  military  discipline 
none  too  seriously,  because  they  brought  a  dis- 
cipline of  their  own.  Wherever,  in  civilian 
pursuits,  the  lives  of  others  hang  on  prompt 


162  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

obedience,  there  is  a  strictness  which  no  mili- 
tary strictness  can  outdo.  This  was  true  of  the 
personnel  of  any  hospital  in  America,  before 
there  was  thought  of  war.  It  was  equally  true, 
of  course,  after  the  units  were  established  be- 
hind the  fighting-lines.  But  there  was  a  certain 
lack  of  prompt  salute  and  a  certain  freedom 
with  first  names  which  not  the  stoutest  manage- 
ment from  the  military  arm  of  the  service  could 
obliterate  from  the  base  hospitals.  The  Medi- 
cal Corps  enlisted  men  were  naturally  not  sin- 
ners in  this  respect.  The  routine  work  of  the 
base  hospitals  all  fell  to  them.  It  was  usually 
a  sergeant  of  the  army — though  he.  was  never 
a  veteran — who  attended  the  reception-rooms, 
kept  account  of  symptoms,  clothes,  and  first 
and  second  names,  and  did  the  work  of  orderly 
in  the  hospital.  It  was  the  privates  who  kept 
the  mess  and  washed  the  dishes  and  changed 
the  sheets. 

The  nurses  went  under  military  discipline 
and  into  military  segregation — sometimes  a  lit- 
tle nettlesome,  when  the  hospitals  were  far 
from  companionship  of  any  outside  sort. 

The  sites  selected  for  the  hospitals  were  either 


FRANCE  AND  THE  MEDICOES          163 

French  hospitals  which  were  given  over,  or 
schools  or  big  public  buildings  remade  into 
hospitals  by  the  engineers.  Each  site  was 
arranged  so  that  it  could  be  enlarged  at  will. 
And  the  railways  which  connected  the  out- 
lying hospitals  with  the  rest  of  the  American 
communications  were  laid  so  that  other  hospi- 
tals could  be  easily  placed  along  their  line. 
There  was  a  splendid  elasticity  in  the  Medical 
Corps  plan. 

One  base  hospital  was  much  like  another,  ex- 
cept for  size.  Those  near  the  line  differed 
somewhat  from  those  farther  back,  but  their 
scheme  was  uniform.  At  any  rate,  the  history 
of  their  doings  was  similar  enough  to  have  one 
history  do  for  them  all.  Take,  for  example,  one 
of  the  New  York  units  which  landed  in  August 
and  was  placed  nearer  the  coast  than  the  fight- 
ing. It  was  put  in  trim  by  the  engineers,  then 
sanitated  by  the  humbler  members  of  the  Medi- 
cal Corps.  The  great  wards  were  laid  out,  the 
kitchens  were  built,  windows  were  pried  open 
— always  the  first  American  job  in  France,  to 
the  great  disgust  and  alarm  of  the  French — 
and  baths  were  put  in. 


164  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

The  chief  surgeon  had  specialized  in  noses 
and  throats  at  home.  When  the  hospital  was 
ready,  naturally  the  soldiers  were  not  in  need 
of  it — being  still  in  training  in  the  Vosges — so 
the  services  of  the  hospital  were  opened  to  the 
civilian  population  of  France. 

By  November  there  was  not  an  adenoid  in 
all  those  parts.  The  death-rate  almost  van- 
ished. Into  this  rural  France,  where  there  had 
been  no  hospital  and  only  a  nursing  home  kept 
by  some  Sisters  of  Mercy  who  saw  their  first 
surgical  operation  within  the  base  hospital,  there 
came  this  skilful  organization,  handled  by  men 
whose  incomes  at  home  had  been  measured  in 
five  figures,  and  all  the  healing  they  had  was 
free. 

Multiply  this  by  twenty,  and  then  by  thirty, 
before  the  pressing  need  for  care  for  soldiers 
directed  the  Medical  Corps  back  to  first  chan- 
nels, and  there  will  be  some  gauge  of  what  this 
service  did  for  France. 

And  the  gratitude  of  France  was  more  than 
commensurate.  Praise  of  the  American  Medi- 
cal Service  flowed  unceasingly  from  officials 
and  civilians,  statesmen  and  journalists.  There 


FRANCE  AND  THE  MEDICOES          165 

were  constant  demands  made  upon  the  French 
Government  that  it  should  pattern  its  own 
medical  forces  exactly  upon  the  American, 
making  it  the  branch  of  the  medical  specialist 
and  not  of  the  politician  or  the  military  man. 

The  individual  officers  of  the  Medical  Corps 
had  much  to  learn,  however,  from  the  French 
and  the  British.  Though  they  knew  hygiene, 
prophylaxis,  antisepsis,  and  surgery  as  few 
groups  of  men  have  ever  known  it,  they  became 
scholars  of  the  humblest  in  the  surgery  of  the 
battle-field.  Every  officer  of  the  Medical  Corps 
was  kept  on  a  round  of  visits  behind  French 
and  British  fronts  during  the  fairly  peaceful 
interim  between  their  landing  and  the  Ameri- 
can occupation  of  a  front-line  sector. 

The  Red  Cross  was  the  great  auxiliary  of 
the  Medical  Corps.  It  kept  up  its  recruiting  in 
America,  both  for  nurses  and  physicians,  and 
for  supplies. 

And  in  supplies  it  played  its  greatest  part. 
The  Red  Cross  maintained  enormous  ware- 
houses, separate  entirely  from  army  control, 
which  contained  provisions  to  meet  every  pos- 
sible shortage.  It  was  known  by  the  Red 


16G  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

Cross  that  never  in  the  history  of  the  world  had 
there  been  a  medical  corps  of  any  army  that 
had  not  finally  broken  down.  No  matter  how 
painstaking  the  provision,  the  need  was  always 
tragically  greater. 

And  so  surgical  dressings,  sets  of  surgical  in- 
struments, medicines,  antiseptics,  and  anaes- 
thetics piled  up  in  the  great  A.  R.  C.  store- 
houses. 

Then  there  were  the  things  for  which  the 
Medical  Corps  frankly  made  no  provision, 
which  could  have  no  place  in  a  strictly  military 
programme,  such  as  food  delicacies  of  great 
cost,  special  articles  of  clothing,  and  amuse- 
ments. Every  hospital  convalescent  ward  had 
its  phonograph,  its  checker-boards,  its  chess- 
sets,  and  its  dominoes.  That  was  the  Red 
Cross. 

The  Red  Cross  had  three  hospitals  of  its 
own  in  Paris.  The  first  of  these  was  at  Neuilly, 
the  hospital  which  had  been  the  American 
Ambulance  Hospital  from  the  beginning  of  the 
war,  given  over  on  the  third  anniversary  of  its 
inauguration.  Here  French  and  American  sol- 
diers, American  civilians  who  worked  with  the 


o 

= 

1 

.0 

E 


G 


FRANCE  AND  THE  MEDICOES          167 

army,  and  Red  Cross  officers  and  men  were 
cared  for.  The  second  had  been  Doctor  Blake's 
Hospital,  and  when  it  became  a  Red  Cross 
hospital,  it  was  made  to  include  the  gigantic 
laboratory  where  investigations  were  made, 
and  where  the  American  Red  Cross  had  the 
honor  to  ferret  out  the  cause  of  trench-fever. 
This  fever  had  been  one  of  the  baffling  tragedies 
of  the  war,  because  in  the  press  of  caring  for 
their  wounded,  other  hospitals  had  been  unable 
to  give  it  sufficient  research. 

The  third  was  the  Reid  Hospital,  equipped 
and  supplied  by  Mrs.  Whitelaw  Reid. 

In  the  long  period  when  all  this  hospital  or- 
ganization was  at  the  command  of  civilian 
France,  inestimably  fine  work  was  done.  It 
was  a  sort  of  poetic  tuition  fee  for  the  instruc- 
tion in  war  surgery  which  was  meanwhile  going 
on  from  veteran  French  surgeons  to  the  Ameri- 
can newcomers.  At  the  end  of  the  first  year, 
the  Medical  Corps  was  itself  ready  for  any  stress, 
and  it  had  mightily  relieved  the  stress  it  had 
already  found. 


CHAPTER  XV 
IN  CHARGE  OF  MORALE 

IF  the  army  as  a  whole  was  a  story  of  old  skill 
in  new  uses,  certainly  the  most  extraordinary 
single  upheaval  was  that  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
Though  it  had  grown  into  many  paths  of  civil 
life,  in  peace-times,  that  could  not  have  been 
foreshadowed  by  its  founders,  probably  the 
wildest  speculation  of  its  future  never  included 
the  purveying  of  vaudeville  and  cigarettes  to 
soldiers  in  France. 

Yet  just  that  was  what  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  was 
doing,  within  less  than  a  year  from  the  Amer- 
ican Army's  arrival  in  France,  and  its  only 
lamentation  was  that  it  had  nowhere  near 
enough  cigarettes  and  vaudeville  to  purvey. 

It  accepted  the  offer  of  the  United  States 
Government  to  watch  over  the  morale  of  the 
soldiers  abroad,  partly  because  it  was  so  ex- 
cellently organized  that  it  could  handle  a  task 
of  such  vast  scope,  and  partly  because  both 
French  and  British  Armies  had  got  such  fine 

168 


IN  CHARGE  OF  MORALE  169 

results  from  similar  organizations  that  the 
American  Y.  M.  C.  A.  felt  itself  to  be  histori- 
cally elected. 

The  Y.  M.  C.  A.  had  cut  its  wisdom-teeth  long 
before  it  became  a  part  of  the  army.  Its  direc- 
tors had  accepted  the  fact  that  a  young  man  is 
apt  to  be  more  interested  in  his  biceps  than  in 
his  soul,  and  that  if  he  can  have  athletics  aplenty, 
and  entertainment  that  really  entertains,  he'd 
as  lief  be  out  of  mischief  as  in  it. 

But  even  this  was  not  quite  broad  enough  for 
the  needs  of  the  army  away  from  home.  And 
one  of  the  first  things  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  did  in 
France,  and  the  stoutest  pillar  of  its  great  suc- 
cess, was  to  abandon  the  slightest  aversion  to 
bad  language,  or  to  the  irreligion  that  brims  out 
of  a  cold,  wet,  and  tired  soldier  in  defiant  spurts, 
and  to  cultivate,  in  their  stead,  a  sympathetic 
feeling  for  the  want  of  smokes  and  a  good  show. 

The  secretaries  sent  abroad  to  build  the  first 
huts  and  watch  over  the  first  soldiers  were  men 
selected  for  their  skill  in  getting  results  against 
considerable  obstacles.  Those  who  followed, 
as  the  organization  grew,  were  specialists  of 
every  sort.  There  were  nationally  famous 


170  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

sportsmen,  to  keep  the  baseball  games  up  to 
scratch,  and  to  see  that  gymnastics  out-of-doors 
were  helped  out  by  the  rules.  There  were  men 
who  could  handle  crowds,  keep  an  evening's 
entertainment  going,  play  good  ragtime,  make 
good  coffee,  and  produce  cigarettes  and  matches 
out  of  thin  air. 

And,  most  important  of  all,  they  were  men 
who  could  eradicate  the  doughboy's  suspicion 
that  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  was  a  doleful,  overly  pray- 
erful, and  effeminate  institution. 

The  Y.  M.  C.  A.  was  dealing  with  the  dough- 
boy when  he  was  on  his  own  time.  If  he  didn't 
want  to  go  to  the  "Y"  hut,  nobody  could  make 
him.  Certain  things  that  were  bad  for  him 
were  barred  to  him  by  army  regulation.  But 
there  was  a  margin  left  over.  If  the  doughboy 
was  doing  nothing  else,  he  might  be  sitting  alone 
somewhere,  feeling  of  his  feelings,  and  finding 
them  very  sad.  The  army  did  not  cover  this, 
but  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  took  the  ground  that  being 
melancholy  was  about  as  bad  as  being  drunk. 

But,  naturally,  the  Red  Triangle  man  had  to 
use  his  tact.  If  he  didn't  have  any,  he  was  sent 
home.  His  job  was  to  persuade  the  doughboy, 


IN  CHARGE  OF  MORALE  171 

not  to  instruct  him.  And  before  long,  the  rule 
of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  was  flatly  put:  "Never  mind 
your  own  theories — do  what  the  soldiers  want." 

That  is  why  the  "Y"  huts — the  combination 
shop,  theatre,  chapel,  and  reading-room,  coffee- 
stall  and  soda  fountain,  baseball-locker  and 
cigarette  store,  post-office  and  library  which  are 
run  by  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  from  coast  to  battle-line 
— are  packed  by  soldiers  every  hour  of  the  day 
and  evening. 

The  "Y"  huts  began  with  the  army.  Before 
the  second  day  of  the  First  Division's  landing, 
there  was  a  circus  banner  across  the  foot  of  the 
main  street  stating:  "This  is  the  way  to  the 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  Get  your  money  changed,  and 
write  home."  By  following  the  pointing  red 
finger  painted  on  the  banner,  one  found  a  wooden 
shack,  with  a  few  chairs,  a  lot  of  writing-paper 
and  French  money,  a  secretary  and  a  heap  of 
good -will. 

As  the  army  moved  battleward,  these  huts 
appeared  just  ahead  of  the  soldiers,  with  in- 
creased stores  at  each  new  place.  American 
cigarettes  were  on  the  counters.  A  few  books 
arrived. 


172  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

The  Y.  M.  C.  A.  proved  its  persuasiveness  by 
its  huts.  A  member  of  the  quartermasters' 
corps  said,  one  day,  in  a  fit  of  exasperation 
over  a  waiting  job:  "How  do  these  'Y'  fellows 
do  it — I  can't  turn  without  falling  over  a  shack, 
built  for  them  by  the  soldiers  in  their  off  time. 
Do  I  get  any  work  out  of  these  soldiers  when 
they're  off  ?  I  do  not.  They're  too  busy  build- 
ing 'Y'  huts." 

The  first  entertainment  in  the  "Y"  huts  was 
when  the  company  bands  moved  into  them  be- 
cause the  weather  was  too  bad  to  play  out-of- 
doors.  The  concerts  were  a  great  success.  By 
and  by,  men  who  knew  something  interesting 
were  asked  to  make  short  lectures  to  the  sol- 
diers. It  was  an  easy  step  to  asking  some  clever 
professional  entertainer  to  come  down  and  give 
a  one-man  show.  Then  Elsie  Janis,  who  was  in 
Europe,  made  a  flying  tour  of  the  "Y"  huts, 
and  a  little  while  after,  E.  H.  So  them  and  Win- 
throp  Ames  went  over  to  see  how  much  organized 
entertainment  could  be  sent  from  America. 

The  result  of  their  visit  was  The  Over-There 
Theatre  League,  to  which  virtually  every  actor 
and  actress  in  America  volunteered  to  belong. 


IX  CHARGE  OF  MORALE  173 

By  the  end  of  the  first  year,  about  300  enter- 
tainers were  either  in  France  or  on  their  way 
there  or  back. 

Three  months  was  the  average  time  the  per- 
formers were  asked  to  give,  and  they  circled  so 
steadily  that  there  were  always  about  200  of 
them  at  work  on  the  "Y"  circuit. 

The  work  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  did  not  stop 
with  affording  entertainment  to  the  soldiers  in 
the  camps.  They  rented  a  big  hotel  in  Paris 
and  another  in  London,  and  they  established 
many  canteens  in  these  two  cities,  so  that  then* 
patrols — secretaries  whose  job  was  to  rescue 
stray,  lonely  soldiers  in  the  streets — would  al- 
ways have  a  near  and  comfortable  place  to 
offer  to  the  wanderers. 

Then  they  preceded  the  army  to  Aix-les- 
Bains  and  Chambery,  the  two  resorts  in  the 
Savoy  Alps  where  American  soldiers  were  sent 
for  their  eight-day  leaves,  and  arranged  for 
cheap  hotel  accommodations,  guides,  theatres, 
etc.,  and  they  took  over  the  Casino  entirely  for 
the  soldiers. 

Their  field  canteens  were  just  back  of  the 
fighting-line,  and  late  at  night  it  was  the  duty 


174  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

of  the  secretaries  to  store  their  pockets  with 
cigarettes  and  chocolate  and  with  letters  from 
home,  and  shoulder  the  big  tins  of  hot  coffee 
made  in  the  canteens  and  go  into  the  front-line 
trenches  to  serve  the  men  there.  In  fact,  the 
r'Y"  men  did  everything  with  the  army  except 
go  over  the  top. 

The  largest  part  of  work  of  this  type  fell  to 
the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  because  they  had  the  most 
flexible  organization  ready  at  the  beginning  of 
American  participation.  But  they  had  sub- 
stantial help,  which  as  time  went  on  grew  more 
and  more  in  volume,  from  several  other  asso- 
ciations. The  Knights  of  Columbus  and  the 
Salvation  Army  both  did  magnificent  service, 
in  canteens  and  trenches.  And  of  course  the 
Red  Cross  took  over  the  sick  soldier  and  enter- 
tained and  supplied  him,  as  a  part  of  their  co- 
army  work. 

There  was  one  branch  of  the  Red  Cross  which 
perhaps  did  more  than  any  other  one  thing  to 
keep  up  the  hearts  and  spirits  of  the  soldiers — 
it  was  called  the  Department  of  Home  Com- 
munications, and  it  was  directed  by  Henry 
Allen,  a  Wichita,  Kansas,  newspaper  man. 


IN  CHARGE  OF  MORALE  175 

Mr.  Allen  believed  that  a  soldier's  letters  did 
more  for  him  than  any  other  one  thing,  and 
that,  failing  letters,  he  must  at  least  have  reli- 
able news  of  his  home  folks  from  time  to  time. 
Further,  that  every  soldier  was  easier  in  his 
mind  if  he  knew  that  his  home  folks  would  have 
news  of  him,  fully  and  authentically,  no  matter 
what  happened  to  him. 

So  Mr.  Allen  posted  his  representatives  in 
every  hospital,  in  every  trench  sector,  and 
through  them  kept  track  of  every  soldier.  If  a 
man  was  taken  prisoner  Mr.  Allen  knew  it.  If 
he  was  wounded  Mr.  Allen  knew  just  where 
and  how.  The  man's  family  was  told  of  it 
immediately.  Presently,  where  this  was  possi- 
ble, Mr.  Allen's  representative  was  writing  let- 
ters from  the  wounded  men  to  their  relatives, 
and  was  receiving  all  Mr.  Allen's  news  of  these 
relatives  for  the  men  in  the  hospital. 

In  addition  to  things  of  this  kind,  done  by 
Red  Triangle  men,  Red  Cross  men,  and  the  Sal- 
vation Army  and  the  Knights  of  Columbus,  all 
these  organizations  worked  together  to  effect 
distributions  of  comfort  kits  and  sweaters,  gift 
cigarettes  and  chocolate,  and  all  the  dozen  and 


176  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

one  things  that  made  the  soldiers  find  life  a 
little  more  agreeable. 

There  was  more  than  co-operation  from  the 
army  itself.  There  was  the  deepest  gratitude, 
openly  expressed,  from  every  member  of  the 
army,  whether  general  or  private,  because  it 
was  a  recognized  fact  that,  though  an  army  can- 
not do  these  things  itself,  it  owes  them  more 
than  it  can  ever  repay. 


CHAPTER  XVI 
INTO  THE  TRENCHES 

AFTER  months  of  training  behind  the  lines 
*  *-  the  doughboys  began  to  long  for  com- 
mencement. It  came  late  in  October.  The 
point  selected  for  the  trench  test  of  the  Ameri- 
cans was  in  a  quiet  sector.  The  position  lay 
about  twelve  miles  due  east  from  Nancy  and 
five  miles  north  of  Luneville.  It  extended 
roughly  from  Parroy  to  Saint-Die.  Even  after 
the  entry  of  the  Americans  the  sector  remained 
under  French  command.  In  fact,  the  four  bat- 
talions of  our  troops  which  made  up  the  first 
American  contingent  on  the  fighting-line  were 
backed  up  by  French  reserves.  No  better  train- 
ing sector  could  have  been  selected,  for  this  was 
a  quiet  front.  American  officers  who  acted  as 
observers  along  this  line  for  several  days  before 
the  doughboys  went  in  found  that  shelling  was 
restricted  and  raids  few.  Many  villages  close 
behind  the  lines  on  either  side  were  respected  be- 
cause of  a  tacit  agreement  between  the  contend- 

177 


178  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

ing  armies.  French  and  Germans  sent  war- 
weary  troops  to  the  Luneville  sector  to  rest  up. 
It  also  served  to  break  in  new  troops  without 
subjecting  them  to  an  oversevere  ordeal,  so  that 
they  might  learn  the  tricks  of  modern  warfare 
gradually. 

Of  course,  even  quiet  sectors  may  become 
suddenly  active,  and  care  was  taken  to  screen 
the  movements  of  the  soldiers  carefully.  It 
proved  impossible,  however,  to  keep  the  move 
a  complete  mystery,  for  when  camion  after 
camion  of  tin-hatted  Americans  moved  away 
from  the  training  area  the  villagers  could  not 
fail  to  suspect  that  something  was  about  to 
happen.  Perhaps  these  suspicions  grew  stronger 
when  each  group  of  fighting  men  sang  loudly 
and  cheerfully  that  they  were  "going  to  hang 
the  Kaiser  to  a  sour  apple-tree." 

The  weather  was  distinctly  favorable  for  the 
movement  of  troops.  One  of  the  blackest 
nights  of  the  month  awaited  the  Americans  at 
the  front.  Rain  fell,  but  not  hard  enough  to 
impede  transportation.  Still,  such  weather  was 
something  of  a  moral  handicap.  Many  of  the 
newcomers  would  have  been  glad  to  take  a  lit- 


INTO  THE  TRENCHES  179 

tie  shelling  if  they  could  have  had  a  bit  of  a 
moon  or  a  few  stars  to  light  their  way  to  the 
trenches.  Instead  they  groped  their  way  along 
roads  which  were  soft  enough  to  deaden  every 
sound.  A  wind  moaned  lightly  overhead  and 
the  strict  command  of  silence  made  it  impossi- 
ble to  seek  the  proper  antidote  of  song.  One  or 
two  men  struck  up  "Tramp,  Tramp,  Tramp, 
the  Boys  Are  Marching,"  as  they  headed  for  the 
front,  but  they  were  quickly  silenced. 

The  march  began  about  nine  o'clock,  after 
the  soldiers  had  eaten  heartily  in  a  little  vil- 
lage close  to  the  lines.  At  the  very  edge  of  this 
village  stood  a  cheerful  inn  and  a  moving- 
picture  theatre.  The  doughboys  looked  a  little 
longingly  at  both  houses  of  diversion  before 
they  swung  round  the  bend  and  followed  the 
black  road  which  led  to  the  trench-line.  The 
people  of  the  village  did  not  seem  to  be  much 
excited  by  the  fact  that  history  was  being  made 
before  their  eyes.  They  had  seen  so  many 
troops  go  by  up  that  road  that  they  could 
achieve  no  more  than  a  friendly  interest.  They 
did  not  crowd  close  about  the  marchers  as  the 
people  had  done  in  Paris. 


180  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

Seemingly  the  Germans  had  not  been  able  to 
ascertain  the  time  set  for  the  coming  of  the 
Americans.  The  roads  were  not  shelled  at  all. 
In  fact,  the  German  batteries  were  even  more 
indolent  than  usual  at  this  point.  The  relief 
was  effected  without  incident,  although  a  few 
stories  drifted  back  about  enthusiastic  poilus 
who  had  greeted  their  new  comrades  with 
kisses. 

The  artillery  beat  the  infantry  into  action. 
They  had  to  have  a  start  in  order  to  get  their 
guns  into  place,  and  some  fifteen  hours  before 
the  doughboys  went  into  the  trenches  America 
had  fired  the  first  shot  of  the  war  against  Ger- 
many. Alexander  Arch,  a  sergeant  from  South 
Bend,  Indiana,  was  the  man  who  pulled  the 
lanyard.  The  shot  was  a  shrapnel  shell  and 
was  directed  at  a  German  working-party  who 
were  presuming  on  the  immunity  offered  by  a 
misty  dawn.  They  scattered  at  the  first  shot, 
but  it  was  impossible  to  tell  whether  it  caused 
any  casualties.  When  the  working-party  took 
cover  there  were  no  targets  which  demanded 
immediate  attention,  and  the  various  members 
of  the  gun  crew  were  allowed  the  privilege  of 


INTO  THE  TRENCHES  181 

firing  the  second,  third,  fourth,  fifth,  sixth,  sev- 
enth, eighth,  and  ninth  shots  of  the  war.  After 
that,  shooting  at  the  Germans  ceased  to  become 
a  historical  occasion,  but  was  a  mere  incident 
in  the  routine  of  duty,  and  was  treated  as  such. 

The  only  unusual  incident  which  seriously 
threatened  the  peace  of  mind  of  the  infantry- 
men in  their  first  night  in  the  trenches  was  the 
flash  of  a  green  rocket  which  occurred  some 
fifteen  or  twenty  minutes  after  they  arrived. 
They  had  been  taught  that  a  green  rocket 
would  be  the  alarm  for  a  gas  attack,  but  this 
particular  signal  came  from  the  German  trenches 
and  had  no  message  for  the  Americans.  The 
Germans  may  have  suspected  the  presence  of 
new  troops,  for  the  men  were  just  a  bit  jumpy, 
as  all  newcomers  to  the  trenches  are,  and  a  few 
took  pot-shots  at  objects  out  in  No  Man's  Land 
which  proved  to  be  only  stakes  in  the  barbed 
wire  or  tufts  of  waving  grass. 

Although  the  Germans  made  the  first  suc- 
cessful raid,  the  Americans  took  the  first  pris- 
oner. He  was  captured  only  a  few  nights  after 
the  coming  of  the  doughboys.  A  patrol  picked 
him  up  close  to  the  American  wire.  He  was  a 


182  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

mail-carrier,  and  in  cutting  across  lots  to  reach 
some  of  his  comrades  he  lost  his  way  and  wan- 
dered over  to  the  American  lines.  Although  he 
was  surprised,  he  was  not  willing  to  surrender, 
but  made  an  attempt  to  escape  after  he  had 
been  ordered  to  halt.  One  of  the  doughboys 
fired  at  him  as  he  ran  and  he  was  carried  into 
the  American  trenches  badly  wounded.  He 
died  the  next  day. 

Beginning  on  the  night  of  November  2  and 
extending  over  into  the  early  morning  of  No- 
vember 3,  the  Germans  made  a  successful  raid 
against  the  American  lines  immediately  after  a 
relief.  After  a  severe  preliminary  bombard- 
ment a  large  party  of  raiders  came  across.  The 
bombardment  had  cut  the  telephone  wires  of 
the  little  group  of  Americans  which  met  the 
attack  and  they  were  completely  isolated. 
They  fought  bravely  but  greenly.  Three  Amer- 
icans were  killed,  five  were  wounded,  and  twelve 
were  captured.  The  Germans  retired  quickly 
with  their  prisoners. 

American  morale  was  not  injured  by  this 
first  jab  of  the  Germans.  On  the  other  hand, 
it  made  the  doughboys  mad,  and,  better  than 


INTO  THE  TRENCHES  183 

that,  made  them  careful.  A  German  attempt 
to  repeat  the  raid  a  few  nights  later  was  re- 
pulsed. The  three  men  who  were  killed  in  this 
first  clash  were  buried  close  to  the  lines,  while 
minute-guns  fired  shells  over  the  graveyard 
toward  the  Germans.  General  Bordeaux,  who 
commanded  the  French  division  at  this  point, 
saluted  before  each  of  the  three  graves,  and 
then  turned  to  the  officers  and  men  drawn  up 
before  him  and  said: 

"In  the  name  of  the  division,  in  the  name  of 
the  French  Army,  and  in  the  name  of  France,  I 
bid  farewell  to  Private  Enright,  Private  Gresh- 
am,  and  Private  Hay  of  the  American  Army. 

"Of  their  own  free  will  they  had  left  a  pros- 
perous and  happy  country  to  come  over  here. 
They  knew  war  was  continuing  in  Europe;  they 
knew  that  the  forces  fighting  for  honor,  love  of 
justice  and  civilization  were  still  checked  by 
the  long-prepared  forces  serving  the  powers  of 
brutal  domination,  oppression,  and  barbarity. 
They  knew  that  efforts  were  still  necessary. 
They  wished  to  give  us  their  generous  hearts, 
and  they  have  not  forgotten  old  historical  mem- 
ories while  others  forget  more  recent  ones. 


184  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

They  ignored  nothing  of  the  circumstances  and 
nothing  had  been  concealed  from  them — neither 
the  length  and  hardships  of  war,  nor  the  vio- 
lence of  battle,  nor  the  dreadfulness  of  new 
weapons,  nor  the  perfidy  of  the  foe. 

"Nothing  stopped  them.  They  accepted  the 
hard  and  strenuous  life;  they  crossed  the  ocean 
at  great  peril;  they  took  their  places  on  the 
front  by  our  side,  and  they  have  fallen  facing 
the  foe  in  a  hard  and  desperate  hand-to-hand 
fight.  Honor  to  them.  Their  families,  friends, 
and  fellow  citizens  will  be  proud  when  they 
learn  of  their  deaths. 

"Men !  These  graves,  the  first  to  be  dug  in 
our  national  soil  and  but  a  short  distance  from 
the  enemy,  are  as  a  mark  of  the  mighty  land 
we  and  our  allies  firmly  cling  to  in  the  com- 
mon task,  confirming  the  will  of  the  people  and 
the  army  of  the  United  States  to  fight  with  us 
to  a  finish,  ready  to  sacrifice  so  long  as  is  nec- 
essary until  victory  for  the  most  noble  of  causes, 
that  of  the  liberty  of  nations,  the  weak  as  well 
as  the  mighty.  Thus  the  deaths  of  these  hum- 
ble soldiers  appear  to  us  with  extraordinary 
grandeur. 


INTO  THE  TRENCHES  185 

"We  will,  therefore,  ask  that  the  mortal  re- 
mains of  these  young  men  be  left  here,  be  left 
with  us  forever.  We  inscribe  on  the  tombs: 
'Here  lie  the  first  soldiers  of  the  Republic  of  the 
United  States  to  fail  on  the  soil  of  France  for 
liberty  and  justice/  The  passer-by  will  stop 
and  uncover  his  head.  Travellers  and  men  of 
heart  will  go  out  of  their  way  to  come  here  to 
pay  their  respective  tributes. 

"Private  Enright !  Private  Gresham  !  Pri- 
vate Hay  !  In  the  name  of  France  I  thank  you. 
God  receive  your  souls.  Farewell !" 

After  the  Germans  had  identified  Americans 
on  the  Luneville  front  it  was  supposed  that  they 
might  maintain  an  aggressive  policy  and  make 
the  front  an  active  one.  The  Germans  were 
too  crafty  for  that.  They  realized  that  the 
Americans  were  in  the  line  for  training,  and  so 
they  gave  them  few  opportunities  to  learn  any- 
thing in  the  school  of  experience.  In  spite  of 
the  lack  of  co-operation  by  the  Germans,  the 
doughboys  gained  valuable  knowledge  during 
their  stay  in  the  trenches.  There  were  several 
spirited  patrol  encounters  and  much  sniping. 
American  aviators  got  a  taste  of  warfare  by 


186  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

going  on  some  of  the  bombing  expeditions  of 
the  French.  They  went  as  passengers,  but  one 
American  at  least  was  able  to  pay  for  his  pas- 
sage by  crawling  out  from  his  seat  and  releasing 
a  bomb  which  had  become  jammed.  When 
every  battalion  had  been  in  the  trenches  the 
American  division  was  withdrawn,  and  for  a 
short  time  in  the  winter  of  1917  there  was  no 
American  infantry  at  the  front. 

Curiously  enough,  the  honor  of  participation 
in  a  major  engagement  hopped  over  the  infan- 
try and  came  first  to  the  engineers.  It  came 
quite  by  accident.  The  llth  Engineers  had 
been  detailed  for  work  behind  the  British  front. 
Early  on  the  morning  of  November  30  four  offi- 
cers and  280  men  went  to  Gouzeaucourt,  a 
village  fully  three  miles  back  of  the  line.  But 
this  was  the  particular  day  the  Germans  had 
chosen  for  a  surprise  attack.  The  engineers  had 
hardly  begun  work  before  the  Germans  laid  a 
barrage  upon  the  village,  and  almost  before  the 
Americans  realized  what  was  happening  Ger- 
man infantry  entered  the  outskirts  of  the  place 
while  low-flying  German  planes  peppered  our 
men  with  machine-gun  fire.  The  engineers 


INTO  THE  TRENCHES  187 

were  unarmed,  but  they  picked  up  what  weapons 
they  could  find  and  used  shovels  and  fists  as 
well  as  they  retired  before  the  German  attack. 
,  According  to  the  stories  of  the  men,  one  soldier 
'  knocked  two  Germans  down  with  a  pickaxe 
before  they  could  make  a  successful  bayonet 
thrust.  He  was  eventually  wounded  but  did 
not  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  Seven- 
teen of  the  engineers  were  captured,  but  the 
rest  managed  to  fight  their  way  out  or  take 
shelter  in  shell-holes,  where  they  lay  until  a 
slight  advance  by  the  British  rescued  them. 

Having  had  a  taste  of  fighting,  the  engineers 
were  by  no  means  disposed  to  have  done  with 
it.  The  entire  regiment,  including  the  survi- 
vors of  Gouzeaucourt,  were  ordered  first  to  dig 
trenches  and  then  to  occupy  them.  This  time 
they  were  armed  with  rifles  as  well  as  intrench- 
ing-tools.  They  held  the  line  until  reinforce- 
/ments  arrived. 

The  conduct  of  the  engineers  was  made  the 
subject  of  a  communication  from  Field-Marshal 
Haig  to  General  Pershing.  "I  desire  to  express 
to  you  my  thanks  and  those  of  the  British  en- 
gaged for  the  prompt  and  valuable  assistance 


188  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

rendered,"  wrote  the  British  commander,  "and 
I  trust  that  you  will  be  good  enough  to  convey 
to  these  gallant  men  how  much  we  all  appreci- 
ate their  prompt  and  soldierly  readiness  to 
assist  in  what  was  for  a  time  a  difficult  situa- 
tion." 


CHAPTER  XVII 
OUR  OWN  SECTOR 

'TpHE  Luneville  sector  was  merely  a  sort 
•*•  of  postgraduate  school  of  warfare,  but 
shortly  after  the  beginning  of  1918  the  Ameri- 
can Army  took  over  a  part  of  the  line  for  its 
very  own.  This  sector  was  gradually  enlarged. 
By  the  middle  of  April  the  Americans  were  hold- 
ing more  than  twenty  miles.  The  sector  lay 
due  north  of  Toul  and  extended  very  roughly 
from  Saint-Mihiel  to  Pont-a-Mousson.  Later 
other  sections  of  front  were  given  over  to  the 
Americans  at  various  points  on  the  Allied  line. 
Perhaps  there  was  not  quite  the  same  thrill  in 
the  march  to  the  Toul  sector  as  in  the  earlier 
movement  to  the  trenches  of  the  Luneville  line. 
After  all,  even  the  limited  service  which  the 
men  liad  received  gave  them  something  of  the 
spirit  of  veterans.  Then,  too,  the  movement 
was  less  of  an  adventure.  .Motor-trucks  were 
few  and  most  of  the  men  marched  all  the  way 
over  roads  that  were  icy.  The  troops  stood  up 

189 


190  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

splendidly  under  the  marching  test  and  under 
the  rigorous  conditions  of  housing  which  were 
necessary  on  the  march.  They  had  learned  to 
take  the  weather  of  France  in  the  same  easy, 
inconsequential  way  they  took  the  language. 

For  a  second  time  the  German  spy  system  fell 
a  good  deal  short  of  its  reputed  omniscience. 
Seemingly,  the  enemy  was  not  forewarned  of 
the  coming  of  the  Americans.  Despite  the  fact 
that  the  troops  were  tired  from  their  long 
march,  the  relief  was  carried  out  without  a 
hitch.  Toul  had  been  regarded  as  a  compara- 
tively quiet  sector,  and,  while  it  never  did  blaze 
up  into  major  actions  during  the  early  months 
of  1918,  it  was  hardly  a  rest-camp.  It  was,  as 
the  phrase  goes,  "locally  active."  Few  parts 
of  the  front  were  enlivened  with  as  many  raids 
and  minor  thrusts,  and  No  Man's  Land  was 
the  scene  of  constant  patrol  encounters,  which 
lost  nothing  in  spirit,  even  if  they  bulked  small 
in  size  and  importance. 

It  is  probable  that  the  Germans  had  no  am- 
bitious offensive  plans  in  regard  to  the  Toul 
sector.  They  tried,  .however,  to  keep  the  Amer- 
icans at  that  point  so  busy  and  so  harassed 


OUR  OWN  SECTOR  191 

that  it  would  be  impossible  for  Pershing  to  send 
men  to  help  stem  the  drives  against  the  French 
and  the  English.  The  failure  of  this  plan  will 
be  shown  in  the  later  chapters. 

Before  going  on  to  take  up  in  some  detail  the 
life  of  the  men  in  the  Toul  sector,  it  is  necessary 
to  record  a  casualty  suffered  by  Major-General 
Leonard  Wood.  While  inspecting  the  French 
lines  General  Wood  was  wounded  in  the  arm 
when  a  French  gun  exploded.  Five  French 
soldiers  were  killed  and  Lieutenant-Colonel 
Charles  E.  Kilbourne  and  Major  Kenyon  A. 
Joyce,  who  accompanied  General  Wood,  were 
slightly  wounded.  Wood  returned  to  America 
shortly  after  the  accident,  and  did  not  have 
the  privilege  of  coming  back  to  France  with 
the  division  he  had  trained.  But  for  all  that 
he  had  a  unique  distinction.  Leonard  Wood 
was  the  first  American  major-general  to  earn 
the  right  to  a  wounded  stripe. 

The  German  artillery  was  active  along  the 
Toul  front  and  the  percentage  of  losses,  while 
small,  was  higher  than  it  had  been  in  the  Lune- 
ville  trenches.  Of  course,  the  American  artillery 
was  not  inactive.  It  had  a  deal  of  practice  dur- 


192  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

ing  the  early  days  of  February.  The  Germans 
attempted  to  ambush  a  patrol  on  the  19th  and 
failed,  and  on  the  next  night  a  sizable  raid 
broke  down  under  a  barrage  which  was  promptly 
furnished  by  the  American  batteries  in  response 
to  signals  from  the  trench  which  the  Germans 
were  attempting  to  isolate. 

The  first  job  for  America  did  not  come  on 
the  Toul  sector,  but  near  the  Chemin-des- 
Dames.  American  artillery  had  already  shown 
proficiency  in  this  sector  by  laying  down  a  bar- 
rage for  the  French,  who  took  a  small  height 
near  Tahure.  Hilaire  Belloc  referred  to  this 
action  as  "small  in  extent  but  of  high  historical 
importance."  The  importance  consisted  in  the 
fact  that  for  the  first  time  American  artillery- 
men had  an  opportunity  of  rolling  a  barrage 
ahead  of  an  attacking  force.  They  showed  their 
ability  to  solve  the  rather  difficult  timing  prob- 
lems involved.  Certain  historical  importance, 
then,  must  be  given  to  the  action  of  February 
23,  when  an  American  raiding-party  in  conjunc- 
tion with  the  French  penetrated  a  few  hundred 
yards  into  the  German  lines  and  captured  two 
German  officers,  twenty  men,  and  a  machine- 


OUR  OWN  SECTOR  193 

gun.  This  little  action  should  not  be  forgot- 
ten, because  it  was  practically  the  first  success 
of  the  Americans.  It  gave  some  indication  of 
the  efficient  help  which  Pershing's  men  were  to 
give  later  on  in  Foch's  great  counter-attack 
which  drove  the  Germans  across  the  Marne. 

It  is  interesting  to  know  that  every  man  in 
the  American  battalion  stationed  on  the  Chemin- 
des-Dames  volunteered  for  the  raid.  Of  this 
number  only  twenty-six  were  picked.  There 
were  approximately  three  times  as  many  French 
in  the  party,  and  it  must  be  remembered  that 
the  affair  was  strictly  a  French  "show."  The 
raid  was  carefully  planned  and  rehearsals  were 
held  back  of  the  line,  over  country  similar  to 
that  which  the  Americans  would  cross  in  the 
raid.  At  5.30  in  the  morning  the  barrage  began 
and  it  continued  for  an  hour  with  guns  of  many 
calibres  having  their  say.  The  attack  was 
timed  almost  identically  with  the  relief  in  the 
German  trenches  and  the  Boches  were  caught 
unawares.  The  fact  that  a  shell  made  a  direct 
hit  on  a  big  dugout  did  not  tend  to  improve 
German  morale.  The  little  party  of  Americans 
had  already  cut  2,999  miles  and  some  yards 


194  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

from  the  distance  which  separated  their  country 
from  the  war,  and  they  were  anxious  to  cover 
the  remaining  distance.  Their  French  com- 
panions set  them  the  example  of  not  running 
into  their  own  barrage.  Poilus  and  doughboys 
jumped  into  the  enemy  trench  together.  There 
was  a  little  sharp  hand-to-hand  fighting,  but 
not  a  great  deal,  as  the  German  officers  ordered 
their  men  to  give  ground.  The  group  of  pris- 
oners were  captured  almost  in  a  body.  Further 
researches  along  communicating  trenches  and 
into  dugouts  failed  to  yield  any  more. 

Attackers  and  prisoners  started  back  for  their 
own  lines  on  schedule  time.  The  German  artil- 
lery tried  to  cut  them  off.  One  shell  wounded 
five  of  the  Germans  and  six  Frenchmen,  but  the 
American  contingent  was  fortunate  enough  to 
escape  without  a  single  casualty.  The  French 
expressed  themselves  as  well  pleased  with  the 
conduct  of  their  pupils.  They  said  that  the 
Americans  had  approached  the  barrage  too 
closely  once  or  twice,  but  this  was  not  remark- 
able, as  it  was  the  first  time  American  infantry 
had  advanced  behind  a  screen  of  shell  fire. 
Their  inexperience  also  excused  their  tendency 


OUR  OWN  SECTOR  195 

to  go  a  little  too  far  after  the  German  trench- 
line  had  been  reached. 

On  February  26  the  Americans  on  the  Toul 
front  had  their  first  experience  with  a  serious 
gas  attack.  Of  course,  gas-shells  had  been 
thrown  at  them  before,  but  this  was  the  first 
time  they  had  been  subjected  to  a  steady  bom- 
bardment. Some  of  the  men  were  not  suffi- 
ciently cautious.  A  few  were  slow  in  getting 
their  masks  on  and  others  took  theirs  off  too 
soon.  The  result  was  that  five  men  were  killed 
and  fifty  or  sixty  injured  by  the  gas.  Two 
days  later  the  Americans  on  the  Chemin-des- 
Dames  were  heavily  attacked,  but  the  Germans 
were  driven  off. 

March  found  the  Toul  sector  receiving  more 
attention  than  usual  from  the  Germans.  The 
Germans  made  a  strong  thrust  on  the  morning 
of  March  1.  The  raid  was  a  failure,  as  three 
German  prisoners  remained  in  American  hands 
and  many  Germans  were  killed.  Gas  did  not 
prove  as  effective  as  on  the  last  occasion.  The 
doughboys  were  quick  to  put  on  their  masks 
and  as  soon  as  the  bombardment  ended  they 
waited  for  the  attacking-party  and  swept  them 


196  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

with  machine-guns.  About  240  Germans  par- 
ticipated in  the  attack.  Some  succeeded  in 
entering  the  American  first-line  trench,  but  they 
were  expelled  after  a  little  sharp  fighting.  An 
American  captain  who  tried  to  cut  off  the  Ger- 
man retreat  by  waylaying  the  raiders  as  they 
started  back  for  their  own  lines  was  killed. 
On  the  same  day  a  raid  against  the  Chemin-des- 
Dames  position  failed.  The  Germans  left  four 
prisoners. 

Two  days  after  the  attempted  Toul  raid  Pre- 
mier Clemenceau  visited  the  American  sector 
and  awarded  the  Croix  de  Guerre  with  palm  to 
two  lieutenants,  two  sergeants,  and  two  pri- 
vates. The  premier,  who  knows  American  in- 
hibitions just  as  well  as  he  knows  the  language, 
departed  a  little  from  established  customs  in 
awarding  the  medals.  Nobody  was  kissed. 
Instead  Clemenceau  patted  the  doughboys-  on 
the  shoulder  and  said:  "That's  the  way  to  do 
it."  One  soldier  was  late  in  arriving,  and  he 
seemed  to  be  much  afraid  that  this  might  cost 
him  his  cross,  but  the  premier  handed  it  to  him 
with  a  smile.  "You  were  on  time  the  other 
morning,"  he  said.  "That's  enough."  In  an 


OUR  OWN  SECTOR  197 

official  note  Clemenceau  described  the  action  of, 
the  Americans  as  follows:  "It  was  a  very  fine 
success,  reflecting  great  honor  on  the  tenacity 
of  the  American  infantry  and  the  accuracy  of 
the  artillery  fire." 

The  Americans  made  a  number  of  raids  dur- 
ing March,  but  the  Germans  were  holding  their 
front  lines  loosely,  and  usually  abandoned  them 
when  attacked,  which  made  it  difficult  to  get 
prisoners.  An  incident  which  stands  out  oc- 
curred on  March  7,  when  a  lone  sentry  suc- 
ceeded in  repulsing  a  German  patrol  practically 
unaided.  He  was  fortunate  enough  to  kill  the 
only  officer  with  his  first  shot.  This  took  the 
heart  out  of  the  Germans.  The  lone  American 
was  shooting  so  fast  that  they  did  not  realize 
he  was  a  solitary  defender,  and  they  fled.  On 
March  14  American  troops  made  their  first  ter- 
ritorial gain,  but  it  can  hardly  be  classed  as  an 
offensive.  Some  enemy  trenches  northeast  of 
Badonviller,  in  the  Luneville  sector,  were  aban- 
doned by  the  Germans  because  they  had  been 
pretty  thoroughly  smashed  up  by  American 
artillery  fire.  These  trenches  were  consolidated 
with  the  American  position. 


198  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

April  saw  the  first  full-scale  engagement  in 
which  American  troops  took  part  at  Seicheprey, 
but  earlier  in  the  month  there  was  some  spirited 
fighting  by  Americans.  Poilus  and  doughboys 
repelled  an  attack  in  the  Apremont  Forest  on 
April  12.  The  American  elements  of  the  de- 
fending force  took  twenty-two  prisoners.  The 
German  attack  was  renewed  the  next  day,  but 
the  Franco-American  forces  dislodged  the  Ger- 
mans by  a  vigorous  counter-attack,  after  they 
had  gained  a  foothold  hi  the  first-line  trenches. 
The  biggest  attack  yet  attempted  on  the  Toul 
front  occurred  on  April  14.  Picked  troops  from 
four  German  companies,  numbering  some  400 
men,  were  sent  forward  to  attack  after  an 
unusually  heavy  bombardment.  The  Germans 
were  known  to  have  had  64  men  killed,  and  11 
were  taken  prisoner. 

Numerous  stories,  more  or  less  authentic, 
were  circulated  after  this  engagement.  One 
which  is  well  vouched  for  concerns  a  young 
Italian  who  met  eight  Germans  in  a  communi- 
cating trench  and  killed  one  and  captured  three. 
The  remaining  four  found  safety  in  flight.  The 
youngster  turned  his  prisoners  over  to  a  sergeant 


OUR  OWN  SECTOR  199 

and  asked  for  a  match.  "I'll  give  you  a  match 
if  you'll  bring  me  another  German,"  said  the 
non-commissioned  officer.  The  little  Italian 
was  a  literal  man  and  he  wanted  the  match 
very  much.  He  went  back  over  the  parapet, 
and  in  five  minutes  he  returned  escorting  quite 
a  large  German,  who  was  crying:  "Kamerad." 
While  American  soldiers  on  the  front  were 
gaining  experience,  which  stood  them  in  good 
stead  at  Seicheprey  and  later  at  Cantigny, 
great  progress  was  made  in  the  organization  of 
the  American  forces.  Late  in  the  spring  the 
first  field -army  was  formed.  This  army  was 
composed  of  two  army  corps  each  made  up  of 
one  Regular  Army  division,  one  National  Army 
division,  and  one  division  of  National  Guard. 
Major-General  Hunter  Liggett  became  the  first 
field -army  commander  of  tEe  overseas  forces, 
and  it  was  his  men  who  covered  themselves 
with  so  much  distinction  in  the  great  counter- 
blows of  July. 


CHAPTER  XVIH 
A  CIVILIAN  VISITOR 

DESTINY  always  plays  the  flying  wedge. 
There  is  always  the  significant  little  hap- 
pening, half  noticed  or  miscalculated,  which 
trails  great  happenings  after  it.  On  March  19, 
1918,  a  derby  hat  appeared  in  the  front-line 
trenches  held  by  the  American  Army  in  France. 
This  promptly  was  accorded  the  honor  by  the 
army  and  the  Allied  representatives  of  being 
the  first  derby  hat  that  had  ever  been  seen  in  a 
trench.  The  hat  had  the  honor  to  be  on  the 
head  of  the  first  American  Secretary  of  War 
who  had  ever  been  in  Europe  in  his  term  of 
office.  And  this  first  American  Secretary  of 
War  away  from  home  was  presently  to  have 
the  honor  of  helping  to  create  the  first  general- 
issimo who  had  ever  commanded  an  army  of 
twenty-six  allies. 

All  of  which  is  to  say  that  Newton  D.  Baker, 
on  a  tour  of  inspection  of  the  A.  E.  F.,  whose 

200 


A  CIVILIAN  VISITOR  201 

visit  was  to  have  such  terrific  fruition,  repudi- 
ated the  war  counsels  which  would  have  kept 
him  out  of  the  trenches  on  this  gusty  March 
day,  and  went  down  to  see  for  himself  and  all 
the  Americans  at  home  how  the  doughboy  was 
faring,  and  what  could  be  done  for  him. 

And  as  he  peered  over  the  parapet  into  No 
Man's  Land,  Secretary  Baker  said:  "I  am 
standing  on  the  frontier  of  freedom."  The 
phrase  grew  its  wings  in  the  saying,  and  by 
nightfall  it  had  found  the  farthest  doughboy. 

The  Paris  newspapers  announced,  on  the 
morning  of  March  12,  that  Secretary  Baker  was 
in  France.  The  troops  had  it  by  noon.  And 
questions  flew  in  swarms.  It  was  discovered 
that  he  would  review  the  brigade  of  veterans 
who  had  returned  from  service  at  the  front  on 
March  20,  and  that  meanwhile  he  would  inves- 
tigate the  lines  of  communication. 

After  a  few  days  in  Paris,  during  which  Sec- 
retary Baker  delivered  all  the  persuasions  he 
had  brought  from  President  Wilson  on  behalf 
of  a  unified  command  of  the  Allied  armies,  and 
had,  it  was  rumored,  turned  the  scale  in  favor 
of  a  generalissimo,  the  distinguished  civilian 


202  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

went  to  the  coast  to  see  the  port  city  which  was 
the  pride  of  the  army  and  the  marvel  of  France. 

The  secretary  rode  to  the  coast  on  a  French 
train,  but,  once  there,  he  was  transferred  to  an 
American  train,  which  had  to  make  up  in  sen- 
timental importance  the  large  lack  it  had  of 
elegance. 

A  flat  car  was  rapidly  rigged  up  with  plank 
benches.  This  had  the  merit  of  affording 
plenty  of  view,  and,  after  all,  that  was  what  the 
secretary  had  come  for. 

After  rolling  over  the  main  arteries  of  the 
200  miles  of  terminal  trackage,  Secretary  Baker 
inspected  the  warehouses,  assembling-plants, 
camps,  etc.,  and  walked  three  mortal  miles  of 
dock  front  which  his  countrymen  had  evolved 
from  an  oozing  marsh.  He  paid  his  highest 
compliments  to  the  engineers  and  the  laborers, 
and  amazed  the  officers  by  the  acuteness  of  his 
questions.  If  his  visit  did  nothing  else,  it  con- 
vinced the  men  on  the  job  that  the  man  back 
home  knew  what  the  obstacles  were. 

Secretary  Baker's  next  visit  was  to  the  big- 
gest of  the  aviation-fields,  where  again  his  tech- 
nical understanding,  as  it  came  out  in  his  ques- 


A  CIVILIAN  VISITOR  203 

tions,  astounded  and  cheered  the  men  who 
were  doing  the  building. 

Secretary  Baker  carried  his  office  with  him,  a 
delightful  discovery  to  the  men  in  the  aviation- 
fields,  who  had  some  problems  sorely  pressing 
for  decision,  and  who  found,  when  they  told 
them  to  Mr.  Baker,  that  he  had  no  aversion  to 
taking  action  on  the  spot.  For  example,  at 
aviation  headquarters,  Mr.  Baker  asked  if  the 
fliers  who  came  first  from  America  were  the 
first  to  have  their  commissions  after  the  final 
flights  in  France.  He  learned  that  because  of 
some  delay  in  giving  final  instruction,  through 
no  fault  of  the  aviators,  these  first  commissions 
had  not  been  given.  Mr.  Baker  instituted  a 
full  inquiry  at  once,  and  at  the  end  of  it  directed 
that  the  commissions,  when  finally  awarded, 
should  bear  a  date  one  day  in  advance  of  all 
others,  so  that  the  priority  rightfully  earned 
should  not  be  lost. 

After  hours  in  the  field,  during  which  hun- 
dreds of  machines  with  American  pilots  flew  in 
squadron  formation,  and  many  experts  did 
spectacular  single  flights,  Mr.  Baker  made  a 
short  speech  to  the  fliers.  A  French  officer, 


204  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

who  had  been  instructing  at  the  field,  said  to 
Mr.  Baker:  "With  all  these  machines  in  the 
air,  you  see  no  more  than  a  tenth  of  what 
America  has  in  this  one  school.  You  will  soon 
have  no  more  need  of  French  instruction.  We 
have  shown  everything  we  know,  and  your 
young  men  have  taken  to  the  art  with  aston- 
ishing facility,  as  well  as  audacity,  nerve,  and 
resource.  The  danger  and  difficulties  fascinate 
and  inspire  them.  I  think  it  must  be  what  you 
call  the  ( sporting  spirit." 

As  he  was  leaving  the  aviation-field  Secretary 
Baker  said:  "The  spirit  of  every  man  in  this 
camp  seems  in  keeping  with  the  mission  which 
brought  him  to  France.  The  camps,  appoint- 
ments, and  organization  are  admirable.  It  is 
gratifying  to  learn  from  their  French  instructors 
that  our  young  aviators  are  proving  themselves 
daring,  cool,  and  skilful." 

On  the  night  of  March  18  Secretary  Baker 
began  his  preparations  for  a  visit  to  the  trenches. 
With  a  general  commanding  a  division  and  'one 
other  officer  he  motored  to  the  farthest  point, 
where  he  dined  and  stayed  the  night  in  a  French 
chateau.  At  dawn  the  next  morning  the  party 


A  CIVILIAN  VISITOR  205 

made  ready  to  go  on.  But  the  •  Boches  ap- 
peared to  have  a  hunch.  They  shelled  the  road 
on  which  Secretary  Baker  had  planned  to  travel 
with  such  ferocity  that  the  officers  in  command 
refused  to  take  the  risk  of  permitting  Mr. 
Baker  to  go  over  it.  The  American  general 
and  all  the  French  officers  then  begged  Mr. 
Baker  to  give  up  the  trip  to  the  trenches.  They 
wasted  a  lot  of  persuasion.  Mr.  Baker  just 
went  by  another  road.  A  colonel  of  about  Mr. 
Baker's  build  had  loaned  him  a  trench  over- 
coat, and  some  rubber  boots,  and  the  secretary- 
had  a  tin  helmet  and  a  gas-mask,  but  he  would 
wear  the  tin  helmet  only  for  a  moment,  and 
the  mask  not  at  all. 

The  officers  in  charge  of  the  party  found 
presently,  to  their  acute  horror,  that  even  the 
trenches  were  not  enough  for  Mr.  Baker. 
Nothing  would  do  him  but  a  listening-post. 
And  when  he  had  finally  got  back  safe,  and  had 
come  back  to  the  communication-trenches  from 
the  front,  everybody  breathed  a  sigh  of  relief. 
The  relief  was  premature,  for  the  liveliest  dan- 
ger of  all  was  on  the  return  motor  trip,  when 
an  immense  shell  buried  itself  in  a  crater  not 


206  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

fifty  yards  from  the  secretary.  Fortunately, 
the  debris  flew  all  in  the  opposite  direction, 
and  nobody  was  hurt. 

The  First  Division  heard  an  address  the  fol- 
lowing day  from  Secretary  Baker.  "It  would 
seem  more  fit,"  he  said,  "and  I  should  much 
prefer  it,  if,  instead  of  addressing  you,  I  should 
listen  to  your  experiences.  Your  division  has 
the  distinction  of  being  the  first  to  arrive  in 
France.  May  every  man  in  your  ranks  aim  to 
make  the  First  Division  the  first  in  accomplish- 
ment. With  you  came  a  body  of  the  marines, 
those  well-disciplined,  ship-shape  soldiers  of  the 
navy. 

"Yours  was  the  first  experience  in  being  bil- 
leted, and  in  all  the  initial  details  of  adjusting 
yourselves  to  new  and  strange  conditions.  In 
this,  as  in  developing  a  system  of  training,  you 
were  the  pioneers,  blazing  the  way,  while  suc- 
ceeding contingents  could  profit  by  your  mis- 
takes. 

"Day  after  day  and  week  after  week  you  had 
to  continue  the  hard  drudgery  of  instruction 
which  is  necessary  to  proficiency  in  modern 
war.  You  had  to  restrain  your  impatience  to 


A  CIVILIAN  VISITOR  207 

go  into  the  trenches  under  General  Pershing's 
wise  demand  for  that  thoroughness,  the  value 
of  which  you  now  appreciate  as  a  result  of 
actual  service  in  the  trenches. 

"If  sometimes  the  discipline  seemed  wearing, 
you  now  know  you  would  have  paid  for  its  ab- 
sence with  your  lives. 

"If  I  had  any  advice  to  give,  it  is  to  strike 
hard  and  shoot  straight,  and  I  would  warn  you 
at  the  same  time  against  any  carelessness,  any 
surrendering  to  curiosity,  which  would  make 
you  a  mark  needlessly.  The  better  you  are 
trained  the  more  valuable  is  your  life  to  your 
country,  as  a  fighter  who  seeks  to  make  the 
soldier  of  the  enemy,  rather  than  yourself,  pay 
the  supreme  price  of  war. 

"On  every  hand  I  am  told  that  you  are  pre- 
pared to  fight  'to  the  end,'  and  I  see  this  spirit 
in  your  faces.  Depend  upon  us  at  home  to 
stand  by  you  in  a  spirit  worthy  of  you." 

Next  Secretary  Baker  spoke,  though  infor- 
mally, to  the  Forty-second  Division,  far  better 
known  as  the  Rainbow  Division.  There  he 
explained  some  of  the  reasons  for  military 
secrecy. 


208  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

"While  it  was  in  training  at  home  I  saw  a 
good  deal  of  the  Rainbow  Division,"  he  said. 
"Then,  one  day,  it  was  gone  to  France,  where 
it  disappeared  behind  the  curtain  of  military 
secrecy  which  must  be  drawn  unless  we  choose 
to  sacrifice  the  lives  of  our  men  for  the  sake  of 
publicity.  The  enemy's  elaborate  intelligence 
system  seeks  at  any  cost  to  learn  the  strength, 
the  preparedness,  and  the  character  of  our 
troops.  Our  own  intelligence  service  assures  us 
that  the  knowledge  of  our  army  in  France  which 
some  assume  to  exist  does  not,  in  fact,  exist. 

"If  we  were  to  announce  the  identity  of  each 
unit  that  comes  to  France,  then  we  would  fully 
inform  the  enemy  of  the  number  and  nature  of 
our  forces.  Published  details  about  any  divi- 
sion are  most  useful  to  expert  military  intelli- 
gence officers  in  determining  the  state  of  the 
division's  preparedness,  and  the  probable  assign- 
ment of  the  division  to  any  section. 

"But  now  it  is  safe  to  mention  certain  divi- 
sions which  were  first  to  arrive  in  France  and 
have  already  been  in  the  line.  This  includes 
the  Rainbow  Division,  famous  because  it  is 
representative  of  all  parts  of  the  United  States. 


A  CIVILIAN  VISITOR  209 

This  division  should  find  in  its  character  an  in- 
spiration to  esprit  de  corps  and  general  excel- 
lence. It  should  be  conscious  of  its  mission  as 
a  symbol  of  national  unity. 

"The  men  of  Ohio  I  know  as  Ohioans,  and  I 
am  proud  that  they  have  been  worthy  of  Ohio. 
A  citizen  of  another  State  will  find  himself 
equally  at  home  in  some  other  group,  and  the 
gauge  of  this  State's  pride  will  be  the  discipline 
of  that  group  of  soldiers,  its  conduct  as  men, 
its  courage,  and  its  skill  in  the  trenches.  You 
may  learn  more  than  war  in  France.  You  may 
learn  lessons  from  France,  whose  unity  and 
courage  have  been  a  bulwark  against  that  sin- 
ister force  whose  character  you  are  learning  in 
the  trenches.  The  Frenchman  is,  first  of  all,  a 
Frenchman,  which  stimulates,  rather  than  weak- 
ens, his  pride  in  Brittany  as  a  Breton,  hi  Lor- 
raine as  a  Lorrainer,  and  his  loyalty  and  affec- 
tion for  his  own  town,  or  village,  or  home.  In 
truth  he  fights  for  his  family  and  his  home 
when  he  fights  for  France  and  civilization. 
Thus,  you  will  fight  best  and  serve  best  by  being 
first  an  American,  with  no  diminution  of  your 
loyalty  to  your  State  and  your  community. 


210  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

"With  us  at  home  the  development  of  a  new 
national  unity  seems  a  vague  process  compared 
to  the  concrete  process  you  are  undergoing. 
You  are  uniting  North,  East,  South,  and  West 
in  action.  We  aim  to  support  you  with  all  our 
resources,  to  make  sure  that  you  do  not  fight 
in  vain." 

The  brigade  of  the  veterans  was  reviewed  on 
the  last  day  of  the  camp  inspection. 

Secretary  Baker  went  by  motor,  with  officers 
and  aides,  as  far  as  the  foot  of  the  hill  from 
which  he  was  to  review  the  troops  deploying 
in  the  Marne  valley.  Twenty  days  of  rain 
had  made  the  hilltop  inaccessible  by  motor. 
As  Secretary  Baker  started  up  one  slope,  Gen- 
eral Pershing  and  his  aides  ascended  another, 
and  the  two  men  met  at  the  top. 

The  brigade  swept  by  at  company  front,  with 
full  marching  equipment.  They  were  the  first 
brigade  to  be  reviewed  after  it  had  been  in 
action,  and  they  held  to  their  flawless  forma- 
tion, chins  up  and  chests  out,  in  spite  of  clog- 
ging mud  that  was  almost  too  much  for  the 
mules. 

The  review  ended  in  compliments  all  around. 


A  CIVILIAN  VISITOR  211 

Secretary  Baker's  enthusiasm  was  conveyed 
even  to  the  lesser  officers.  General  Pershing 
said:  "These  men  have  been  there  and  know 
what  it  is.  You  can  tell  that  by  the  way  they 
throw  out  their  chests  as  they  swing  by." 

America  at  last  had  her  veterans.  They  were 
to  dignify  the  coming  gift  of  them  to  heroic 
size. 


CHAPTER  XIX 
A  FAMOUS  GESTURE 

WHEN  America  had  put  the  power  of  all 
her  eloquence  into  the  growing  demand 
among  the  Allies  for  a  unified  command,  and 
when,  as  a  result  of  this  pressure,  General  Foch, 
chief  of  staff  of  the  French  Army  and  hero  of 
the  battle  of  the  Marne,  had  been  made  gen- 
eralissimo, General  Pershing  put  into  words  in 
what  the  French  called  a  "superb  gesture"  the 
final  sacrifice  his  country  was  prepared  to  make. 

The  first  of  the  great  German  drives  of  1918 
had  halted,  but  the  battle  was  nowhere  near 
its  end.  General  Foch  was  sparing  every  pos- 
sible energy  on  the  battle-front  and  heaping 
up  every  atom  of  force  for  his  reserve. 

And  on  the  morning  of  March  28  General 
Pershing  went  to  headquarters  and  offered  the 
American  Army  in  full  to  General  Foch,  to 
put  where  he  pleased,  without  any  regard 
whatever  for  America's  earlier  wish  to  fight 

with  her  army  intact. 

212 


A  FAMOUS  GESTURE  213 

It  was  the  final  sacrifice  to  the  idealistic  point 
of  view.  It  had  indisputably  the  heroic  qual- 
ity. And  as  such  it  was  rewarded  in  the  coun- 
tries of  the  Allies  with  appreciation  beyond 
measure. 

"I  have  come,"  said  General  Pershing  to 
General  Foch  that  morning,  "to  say  to  you 
that  the  American  people  would  hold  it  a  great 
honor  for  our  troops  if  they  were  engaged  in 
the  present  battle.  I  ask  it  of  you  in  my  name 
and  in  that  of  the  American  people. 

"There  is  at  this  moment  no  other  question 
than  that  of  fighting.  Infantry,  artillery,  avia- 
tion— all  that  we  have  are  yours,  to  dispose  of 
them  as  you  will.  Others  are  coming,  which 
are  as  numerous  as  will  be  necessary.  I  have 
come  to  say  to  you  that  the  American  people 
would  be  proud  to  be  engaged  in  the  greatest 
battle  in  history.*' 

This  offer  was  placed  immediately  by  General 
Foch  before  the  French  war-council  at  the 
front,  a  council  including  Premier  Clemenceau, 
Commander-in-Chief  Petain,  and  Louis  Lou- 
cheur,  Minister  of  Munitions,  and  was  imme- 
diately accepted.  American  Army  orders  went 


214  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

forth  in  French  from  that  day.  And  on  those 
orders  the  army  was  presently  scattered  through 
the  vast  reserve  army,  from  Flanders  with  the 
British  to  Verdun  with  the  Italians  and  the 
French.  They  were  not  to  go  into  actual  bat- 
tle, except  near  their  own  sectors,  till  the  third 
monster  drive,  in  July,  for  General  Foch  makes 
a  religion  of  the  reserve  army  and  Fabian  tac- 
tics. But  they  spread  through  the  battle-line 
from  Switzerland  to  the  sea,  as  General  Persh- 
ing  had  suggested,  and  "all  we  have"  was  at 
work. 

Paris  acclaimed  the  move  royally.  La  Liberte 
wrote:  "General  Pershing  yesterday  took,  in 
the  name  of  his  country,  action  which  was 
grand  in  its  simplicity  and  of  moving  beauty. 
In  a  few  words,  without  adornment,  but  in 
which  vibrated  an  accent  of  chivalrous  pas- 
sion, General  Pershing  made  to  France  the 
offer  of  an  entire  people.  'Take  all,'  he  said; 
'all  is  yours.'  The  honor  Pershing  claims  is 
shared  by  us,  and  it  is  with  the  sentiment  of 
real  pride  that  our  soldiers  will  greet  into  their 
ranks  those  of  the  New  World  who  come  to 
them  as  brothers." 


A  FAMOUS  GESTURE  215 

Secretary  Baker,  from  American  General 
Headquarters,  gave  out  a  statement.  "I  am 
delighted  at  General  Pershing's  prompt  and 
effective  action,"  he  said,  "in  placing  all  the 
American  troops  and  facilities  at  the  disposal 
of  the  Allies  in  the  present  situation. 

"It  will  be  met  with  hearty  approval  in  the 
United  States,  where  the  people  desire  their 
expeditionary  force  to  be  of  the  utmost  service 
in  the  common  cause.  I  have  visited  all  the 
American  troops  in  France,  some  of  them  re- 
cently, and  had  an  opportunity  to  observe  the 
enthusiasm  with  which  officers  and  men  re- 
ceived the  announcement  that  they  would  be 
used  in  the  present  conflict.  One  regiment  to 
which  the  announcement  was  made  spontane- 
ously broke  into  cheers." 

The  British  Government  issued  an  official 
statement  on  the  night  of  April  1:  "As  a  result 
of  communications  which  have  passed  between 
the  Prime  Minister  and  President  Wilson;  of 
deliberations  between  Secretary  Baker,  who 
visited  London  a  few  days  ago,  and  the  Prime 
Minister,  Mr.  Balfour,  and  Lord  Derby,  and 
consultations  in  France  in  which  General  Persh- 


216  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

ing  and  General  Bliss  participated,  important 
decisions  have  been  come  to  by  which  large 
forces  of  trained  men  in  the  American  Army  can 
be  brought  to  the  assistance  of  the  Allies  in  the 
present  struggle. 

"The  government  of  our  great  Western  ally 
is  not  only  sending  large  numbers  of  American 
battalions  to  Europe  during  the  coming  critical 
months,  but  has  agreed  to  such  of  its  regiments 
as  cannot  be  used  in  divisions  of  their  own 
being  brigaded  with  French  and  British  units 
so  long  as  the  necessity  lasts. 

"By  this  means  troops  which  are  not  suffi- 
ciently trained  to  fight  as  divisions  and  army 
corps  will  form  part  of  seasoned  divisions,  until 
such  time  as  they  have  completed  their  training 
and  General  Pershing  wishes  to  withdraw  them 
in  order  to  build  up  the  American  Army. 

"Throughout  these  discussions  President  Wil- 
son has  shown  the  greatest  anxiety  to  do  every- 
thing possible  to  assist  the  Allies,  and  has  left 
nothing  undone  which  could  contribute  thereto. 

''This  decision,  however  of  vital  importance 
it  will  be  to  the  maintenance  of  the  Allied 
strength  in  the  next  few  months,  will  in  no 


A  FAMOUS  GESTURE  217 

way  diminish  the  need  for  those  further  mea- 
sures for  raising  fresh  troops  at  home  to  which 
reference  has  already  been  made. 

"It  is  announced  at  once,  because  the  Prime 
Minister  feels  that  the  singleness  of  purpose  with 
which  the  United  States  have  made  this  im- 
mediate and,  indeed,  indispensable  contribution 
toward  the  triumph  of  the  Allied  cause  should 
be  clearly  recognized  by  the  British  people." 

Lord  Reading,  the  British  Ambassador  at 
Washington,  conveyed  to  President  Wilson  a 
message  of  thanks  from  the  British  Govern- 
ment, for  "the  instant  and  comprehensive 
measures"  which  the  President  took  in  response 
to  the  request  that  American  troops  be  used  to 
reinforce  the  Allied  armies  in  France.  The  Em- 
bassy then  gave  out  a  statement  that  "the 
knowledge  that,  owing  to  the  President's  prompt 
co-operation,  the  Allies  will  receive  the  strong 
reinforcement  necessary  during  the  next  few 
months  is  most  welcome  to  the  British  Govern- 
ment and  people." 

The  London  papers  reflected  this  sentiment 
in  even  stronger  terms.  Said  the  Westminster 
Gazette:  "It  seals  the  unity  of  the  Allied  forces 


218  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

in  France,  and  so  far  from  weakening  the  de- 
termination to  provide  all  possible  reinforce- 
ments from  this  country,  it  will,  we  are  confi- 
dent, give  it  fresh  energy.  All  the  big  loans 
America  has  made  to  Great  Britain  and  France, 
her  heavy  contributions  of  food,  her  princely 
gifts  through  the  Red  Cross,  and  the  high, 
stimulating  utterances  of  President  Wilson,  have 
done  much  to  strengthen  the  Allied  morale  and 
lend  material  assistance  to  the  war  against 
autocracy,  but  none  of  these  counts  so  heavily 
with  the  masses,  because  there  are  few  families 
here  or  in  France  who  have  not  a  personal  and 
intimate  interest  in  the  soldiers  battling  on  the 
plains  of  Picardy." 

The  Evening  Star  wrote:  "In  a  true  spirit  of 
soldierly  comradeship  they  will  march  to  the 
sound  of  guns,  and  will  merge  their  national 
pride  in  a  common  stock  of  courage  for  the 
common  good.  It  is  a  chivalrous  decision,  and 
President  Wilson,  Mr.  Baker,  and  General  Bliss 
have  done  a  very  great  thing  in  a  very  great 
way.  The  British  and  French  people  are  moved 
by  this  splendid  proof  of  America's  fellowship 
in  the  fight  for  world  freedom." 


A  FAMOUS  GESTURE  219 

If  this  gift  was  so  significant  in  spirit,  it  was 
also  bravely  helpful  in  round  numbers.  At  the 
end  of  March,  1918,  General  Pershing  had 
366,142  soldiers  in  his  command  in  France,  and 
of  these,  after  nine  months  of  training  and  ad- 
justment, he  could  put  about  100,000  in  the 
line. 

And  within  three  months  after  this  tune  he 
had  more  than  1,000,000  soldiers  in  France, 
the  Navy  Department  having  accomplished  the 
astounding  feat  of  transporting  637,929  in  April, 
May,  and  June.  The  month  that  the  reinforce- 
ment of  the  French  and  British  Armies  was 
planned  and  accepted  the  transport  figures 
jumped  from  forty-eight  thousand  odd  to  eighty- 
three  thousand  odd.  The  month  of  its  first 
practical  operation  the  figures  jumped  again  to 
one  hundred  and  seventeen  thousand  odd,  and 
in  the  month  of  June,  the  month  of  the  anni- 
versary of  the  first  debarkation,  there  was  a 
transportation  of  276,372  men. 

The  last  few  days  of  March,  1918,  saw  the 
first  large  troop  movements  from  the  American 
zone — that  is,  saw  them  strictly  in  the  mind's 
eye.  Actually,  the  rain  came  down  in  such 


220  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

drenching  downpours  that  the  French  villagers 
whom  the  motor-trucks  passed  did  not  so  much 
see  as  hear  the  doughboys.  Throughout  the 
whole  zone  the  activity  was  prodigious.  Along 
the  muddy  roads  two  great  processions  of  motor- 
trucks crossed  each  other  day  and  night,  the 
one  taking  the  soldiers  to  one  front,  the  other  to 
another.  Sometimes  the  camions  slithered  in 
the  mud  till  they  came  to  a  stop  in  the  gutter. 
Then  the  boisterous,  jubilant  soldiers  would 
tumble  out  and  set  their  shoulders  under  wheels 
and  mud-guards,  and  hoist  the  car  into  the  road 
again.  The  singing  was  incessant.  The  mood 
of  the  songs  swung  from  "The  Battle  Hymn  of 
the  Republic"  to  "There'll  Be  a  Hot  Time  in 
the  Old  Town  To-night." 

The  exuberance  of  the  soldiers  knew  no 
bounds.  They  were  about  to  answer  "present" 
to  the  roll-call  of  the  big  guns,  the  call  they  had 
been  hearing  for  so  many  months,  that  had 
seemed  to  them  so  persistently  and  personally 
compelling.  They  were  going  to  become  a  part 
of  that  living  wall  which  for  three  years  and  a 
half  had  held  the  enemy  out  of  Paris. 

Those  who  were  going  to  the  British  front 


A  FAMOUS  GESTURE  221 

were  particularly  exultant  because  they  ex- 
pected to  find  open  fighting  there,  the  kind  they 
called  "our  specialty." 

To  all  the  units  going  into  the  French  and 
British  Armies  a  general  order  was  read,  jacking 
up  discipline  to  the  topmost  notch. 

"The  character  of  the  service  this  command 
is  now  about  to  undertake/*  read  the  order, 
"demands  the  enforcement  of  stricter  discipline 
and  the  maintenance  of  higher  standards  of 
efficiency  than  any  heretofore  required. 

"In  future  the  troops  of  this  command  will 
be  held  at  all  times  to  the  strictest  observance 
of  that  rigid  discipline  in  camp  and  on  the 
march  which  is  essential  to  their  maximum  effi- 
ciency on  the  day  of  battle." 

The  first  of  the  fighting  troops  arrived  on  the 
British  front  on  the  morning  of  April  10,  after 
an  all-night  march.  They  were  grimed  and 
mud-spattered,  hungry,  and  tired,  and  cold. 
But  the  cheering  that  rose  from  the  Tommies 
when  they  recognized  the  American  uniforms 
at  the  head  of  the  column  would  have  revived 
more  exhausted  men  than  they. 

The  first  comers  were  infantry,  a  battalion  of 


222  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

them.  Others  came  up  during  the  day,  with 
artillerymen  and  machine-gunners.  The  cele- 
bration of  their  coming  lasted  far  into  the  next 
night,  and  the  commanders  of  the  British  front 
exchanged  telegrams  of  congratulation  with  the 
commanders  of  the  French  front  that  they  were 
to  be  so  welcomely  refreshed. 

But  Generalissimo  Foch,  with  his  stanch  de- 
termination not  to  be  done  out  of  his  reserve, 
held  the  Americans  back,  and  they  were  des- 
tined to  remain  behind  the  main  battle-line  for 
three  and  a  half  months  longer. 

Meanwhile  the  American  strength  was  piling 
steadily  up  in  the  reserve,  and  in  mid-May  a 
large  contingent  of  the  National  Army,  said  to 
be  the  first  of  them  to  land  in  Europe,  reached 
the  Flanders  front  and  began  to  train  at  once 
behind  the  British  lines,  without  preliminary 
work  in  American  camps  in  France. 

These  men  had  what  was  probably  the  most 
exhilarating  welcome  of  the  war.  The  Tom- 
mies, many  of  them  wounded  and  sick,  poured 
out  into  the  roadways  as  the  new  American 
Army  arrived,  and  threw  their  caps  into  the 
air  and  split  their  throats  with  cheers.  The 


A  FAMOUS  GESTURE  223 

British  had  been  terrifically  hard  pressed  in  the 
German  offensive.  They  had  given  ground 
only  after  incredible  fighting.  They  were,  in 
the  phrase  of  General  Haig,  at  last  "with  their 
backs  to  the  wall."  They  held  their  line  mag- 
nificently, but  they  could  not  have  been  less 
than  filled  with  thanksgiving  that  they  were 
now  to  have  the  help  of  the  least  war-worn  of 
all  their  allies. 


CHAPTER  XX 
THE  FIRST  TWO  BATTLES 

WHILE  Generalissimo  Foch  was  strength- 
ening his  long  line,  with  American  troops 
as  flying  buttresses,  those  sectors  delegated  to 
the  Americans  in  their  own  right  saw  two  bat- 
tles, within  a  few  weeks  of  each  other,  which 
attained  to  the  dignity  of  names.  The  battle 
of  Seicheprey,  the  first  big  American  defensive 
action,  and  the  battle  of  Cantigny,  the  first  big 
offensive,  the  one  in  the  Toul  sector,  the  other 
in  Picardy,  were  the  occasions  of  the  American 
baptism  of  fire.  The  one  was  so  valiant,  the 
other  so  brilliant,  and  both  were  so  reassuring 
to  the  high  commands  of  the  Allies,  that  they 
would  deserve  a  special  emphasis  even  if  they 
had  not  the  distinction  of  being' America's  first 
battles. 

On  the  night  of  April  20-21  the  German 
bombardment  of  Seicheprey,  a  village  east  of 
the  Renners  wood,  and  just  northwest  of  Toul, 
grew  to  monstrous  proportions.  Frenchmen 

224 


THE  FIRST  TWO  BATTLES  225 

who  had  seen  the  great  Verdun  offensive,  in 
which  the  German  Crown  Prince  had  made  a 
new  record  for  artillery  preparation,  said  that 
the  heavy  firing  on  the  American  sector  eclipsed 
any  of  the  action  at  Verdun. 

The  firing  covered  a  front  of  a  mile  and  a 
quarter.  The  bombardment  was  of  high  ex- 
plosive shells  and  gas,  apparently  an  effort  to 
disable  the  return  fire  from  American  artillery. 
But  all  through  the  night  the  artillerymen  sent 
their  shells,  encasing  themselves  in  gas-masks. 

Toward  dawn  the  attack  began.  A  full 
regiment  of  German  soldiers,  preceded  by  1,200 
shock  troops,  advanced  under  a  barrage.  Half- 
way across  No  Man's  Land  the  American  artil- 
lery laid  down  a  counter-barrage,  and  many  of 
the  Germans  dropped  under  it,  but  still  the 
great  waves  of  them  came  on,  focussing  on  the 
village  of  Seicheprey. 

The  impact  of  their  terrific  numbers  was  too 
powerful  to  be  withstood  at  once.  The  Ameri- 
can troops  fell  back  from  some  of  their  first-line 
trenches,  which  the  first  bombardment  had 
caused  them  to  hold  loosely,  and  part  of  the 
forces  fell  back  even  from  the  village.  The 


226  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

Germans  marched  into  the  village,  evidently 
believing  it  to  have  been  totally  abandoned, 
carrying  their  flame-throwers  and  grenades,  but 
making  no  use  of  them.  Suddenly  they  discov- 
ered that  certain  American  troops  had  been  left 
to  defend  the  village,  while  the  main  force  re- 
formed at  the  rear,  and  hand-to-hand  fighting 
in  the  street  became  necessary.  An  American 
commander  sent  word  back  that  the  troops  were 
giving  ground  by  inches,  and  that  they  could 
hold  for  a  few  hours. 

Seicheprey,  the  first  big  American  battle,  had 
every  element  of  the  World  War  in  little.  Be- 
fore the  loss  of  the  village,  which  occurred 
about  noon,  the  troops  defending  it  had  fought 
from  ambush  and  in  the  open,  had  fought  with 
gas  and  liquid  fire,  with  grenades,  rifles,  and 
machine-guns.  In  the  inferno  the  new  troops 
were  giving  proof  of  valor  that  was  to  come  out 
later  and  be  scattered  broadcast,  as  a  measure 
of  what  America  would  bring. 

In  and  out  of  the  streets  of  Seicheprey,  in  its 
little  public  square,  from  the  yards  of  its  houses, 
hundreds  of  American  soldiers  were  fighting  for 
their  lives.  France  lay  behind  them,  trusting  to 


THE  FIRST  TWO  BATTLES  227 

be  saved.  Other  Americans  were  behind  them, 
racing  into  formation  with  French  troops  for 
the  counter-attack.  The  defenders  of  Seiche- 
prey,  "giving  by  inches,"  had  a  battle-cry  of 
their  own,  brief  and  racy,  of  the  football-fields: 
"Hold  'em." 

After  a  while  the  Germans  took  Seicheprey. 
The  hideously  pressed,  slow-giving  outpost 
moved  back.  Before  the  day  had  finished  the 
shell-stripped  streets  of  Seicheprey,  sheltering 
the  invaders,  weltered  again  under  the  first 
American  shells  of  the  counter-attack.  By 
nightfall  the  troops  were  creeping  forward  under 
the  counter-barrage.  The  army,  reformed,  re- 
freshed, and  replenished,  was  on  its  way  to  take 
its  own  back  again.  The  counter-battle  lacked 
the  monstrous  gruelling  of  the  first  attack.  It 
took  less  time.  The  superiority  of  numbers  had 
shifted  to  the  other  side,  and  the  white  heat  of 
determination  did  its  share. 

The  Germans  held  Seicheprey  about  four 
hours. 

The  main  positions  of  the  army,  which  were 
threatened,  were  untouched  because  of  the 
stoutness  of  the  resistance  at  the  village,  and 


228  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

most  of  the  first-line  positions  were  retaken 
with  the  rush  of  the  counter-attack. 

The  German  prisoners  who  were  captured 
had  many  days'  rations  in  their  kits  and  extra 
loads  of  trench-tools  on  their  backs.  They  had 
intended  to  hold  the  American  trenches  for 
several  days,  facing  them  the  other  way,  before 
they  commenced  the  new  attack,  which,  in  the 
plan  of  the  German  high  command,  was  to 
break  apart  the  French  and  American  lines 
where  they  joined,  above  Toul.  Once  this 
wedge  was  into  the  Allied  vitals  the  rest  was 
to  be  easy. 

Though  Seicheprey  did  not  count  as  a  big 
battle  in  point  of  numbers  engaged  or  numbers 
lost,  it  loomed  large  enough  in  the  importance 
it  had  strategically.  The  German  high  com- 
mand obviously  expected  little  or  nothing  from 
the  "green  American  troops."  The  shock  troops 
had  been  rehearsed  for  weeks  to  take  the  Ameri- 
can lines  and  hold  them  till  the  Allied  line 
should  be  broken  apart.  In  fact,  it  was  nobly 
planned.  The  only  compliment  the  Americans 
could  squeeze  out  of  it  was  that  the  Germans 
were  sent  over  in  many  places  eight  to  their 


THE  FIRST  TWO  BATTLES  229 

one.  But  the  capture  of  Seicheprey  lasted  just 
four  hours,  and  the  disruption  of  the  Franco- 
American  line  remained  a  mere  brain-child  of 
the  Wilhelmstrasse. 

The  French  soldiers  who  joined  the  counter- 
attack told  thrilling  stories  of  the  Americans. 
They  told  that  in  one  place  north  of  Seicheprey, 
an  American  detachment  was  separated  into 
small  groups,  and  was  cut  off  from  the  com- 
pany to  which  it  belonged  through  the  entire 
fight.  Behind  the  Americans  and  on  their  left 
flank  were  German  units,  but  they  could  have 
retired  on  the  right.  They  decided  to  stay  and 
fight,  so  there  they  stayed,  notwithstanding  in- 
cessant enemy  bombardment. 

In  the  town  of  Seicheprey  a  squad  of  Ameri- 
cans found  a  few  cases  of  hand-grenades.  With 
these  they  put  up  a  tremendous  fight  through 
the  whole  day,  holding  to  a  strip  at  the  northern 
end  of  the  village.  They  refused  to  surrender 
when  they  were  ordered  to,  and  at  the  end  of 
the  fighting  only  nine  of  the  original  twenty- 
three  were  left.  By  the  grace  of  these  nine 
men  Seicheprey  was  never  wholly  German, 
even  for  the  four  hours. 


230  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

One  New  England  boy  passed  through  the 
enemy  barrage  seven  times  to  carry  ammuni- 
tion to  his  comrades.  A  courier  who  was  twice 
blown  off  the  road  by  shell  explosions  carried 
his  message  through  and  dropped  as  he  re- 
ported. A  lieutenant  with  only  six  men  pa- 
trolled six  hundred  yards  of  the  front  through- 
out the  day,  holding  communications  open 
between  the  battalions  to  the  right  and  left 
of  him.  A  sanitary-squad  runner  captured  by 
the  Germans,  escaped  them  and  made  his  way 
into  Seicheprey,  tending  the  wounded  there  till 
help  came.  A  machine-gunner  found  himself 
alone  with  his  gun,  and  on  being  asked  by  a 
superior  officer  if  he  could  hold  the  line  there, 
replied  that  he  could  if  he  were  not  killed.  He 
did.  A  regimental  chaplain  went  te  the  assis- 
tance of  a  battery  which  was  hard  pressed,  and 
carried  ammunition  for  them  for  hours,  then 
took  his  turn  at  the  gun. 

These  make  no  roster  of  the  heroes  of  Seiche- 
prey.  There  were  hundreds  of  them.  But  the 
censor's  passionate  aversion  to  details  of  all 
battles  has  scotched  the  narrative  of  heroes  for 
the  present. 


THE  FIRST  TWO  BATTLES  231 

Cantigny  will  warm  the  cockles  of  the  Ameri- 
can heart  as  long  as  it  beats.  There  was  a  bat- 
tle that  for  spirit,  flare,  brilliancy,  came  up  to 
the  rosiest  dream  that  ever  was  dreamed,  in 
Washington,  or  London,  or  Paris. 

Cantigny,  like  Seicheprey,  was  not  an  en- 
gagement of  great  numbers.  It  was  a  little 
town  that  was  hard  to  capture.  It  commanded 
a  fine  view  of  the  American  lines  for  miles  back, 
and  it  had  been  able  to  withstand  some  violent 
attempts  earlier,  so  it  Was  particularly  desir- 
able. And  it  was  in  a  salient,  so  that  it  formed 
an  angle  in  the  line.  Its  taking  straightened 
the  line,  heartily  disgruntled  the  Boches,  who 
lost  200  prisoners  and  many  hundred  wounded 
and  dea  i  in  defending  it,  and  it  gave  the 
American  troops  their  first  taste  of  the  offensive. 
But  more  than  all  that,  it  gave  these  same 
troops  a  record  of  absolutely  flawless  workman- 
ship which,  if  not  large,  was  at  least  complete. 

The  capture  of  Cantigny  and  200  yards  be- 
yond it,  which  included  the  German  second 
line,  took  just  three-quarters  of  an  hour. 

In  the  niggardly  terms  of  the  communique: 
"This  morning  in  Picardy  our  troops  attacked 


232  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

on  a  front  of  one  and  a  fourth  miles,  advanced 
our  lines,  and  captured  the  village  of  Cantigny. 
We  took  200  prisoners  and  inflicted  on  the 
enemy  severe  losses  in  killed  and  wounded. 
Our  casualties  were  relatively  small.  Hostile 
counter-attacks  broke  down  under  our  fire." 

It  was  on  the  morning  of  May  28.  At  a 
quarter  to  six  a  bombardment  began.  At  a 
quarter  to  seven  the  troops  went  over  the  top. 
The  barrage  went  first,  a  dense  gray  veil. 
Then  came  twelve  French  tanks.  Just  behind 
the  tanks  stalked  the  doughboys. 

The  soldiers  moved  like  clockwork.  There 
were  no  unruly  fringes  to  be  nipped  by  the 
barrage.  There  was  no  break  in  the  methodi- 
cal stride.  They  went  forward  first  a  hundred 
yards  in  two  minutes.  Then  the  barrage  slowed 
to  a  hundred  yards  in  four  minutes.  In  a  little 
while  the  troops  had  arrived  at  the  edge  of  the 
village;  then  the  close-quarter  fighting  began. 

At  7.30  a  white  rocket  rose  from  the  centre 
of  Cantigny,  dim  against  the  smoky  sky,  to  tell 
the  men  behind  that  "the  objective  is  reached 
and  prisoners  are  coming." 

The  Americans  found  the  enemy  in  confusion 


THE  FIRST  TWO  BATTLES  233 

and  unreadiness,  and  the  initial  resistance  from 
machine-guns  at  the  town's  edge  was  easily 
overcome.  Where  the  burden  of  hard  fighting 
came  was  in  routing  the  Germans  out  from  the 
caves  and  tunnels  and  cellars  of  the  town  into 
which  they  had  retired. 

There  was  a  long  tunnel  in  the  town,  which, 
after  furious  fighting,  was  surrounded  and  iso- 
lated. The  flame-throwers  were  placed  at  both 
ends  of  the  tunnel,  and  that  episode  was  ended. 
Some  of  the  caves  were  large  enough  to  hold  a 
battalion.  These  were  handled  by  the  mop- 
ping-up  troops,  who  threw  hand-grenades. 

The  prisoners  began  to  file  back  almost  imme- 
diately. One  grinning  Pittsburgher,  wounded 
in  the  arm,  marched  in  the  rear  of  a  prison 
squad.  ''That's  handin'  it  to  them  Huns, 
blankety-blank  'em,"  he  said  cheerfully. 

The  village  caught  fire  from  the  bombard- 
ment and  the  firing  of  the  tunnel,  and  for 
hours  after  its  capture  the  soldiers  had  to  fight 
flames. 

The  first  of  the  American  "shock  troops" 
went  from  the  village  on  to  the  German  second- 
line  trenches,  and  under  a  hail  of  bullets  from 


234  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

German  machine-guns  dug  themselves  in  and 
faced  the  trenches  the  other  way. 

All  that  day  they  held  their  prize  unmolested. 
They  had  all  the  high  ground  beyond  Cantigny, 
and  an  approach  was,  to  put  it  mildly,  precari- 
ous. But  by  five  of  the  afternoon  the  German 
counter-attacks  had  begun.  One  wave  after 
another  stormed  half-way  up  the  hill,  then  tum- 
bled down  again,  broken  under  the  American 
artillery.  Four  counter-attacks  were  made 
against  Cantigny,  but  all  of  them  failed.  The 
new  positions  were  consolidated,  under  heavy 
fire  and  gas  attack,  and  there  they  stayed. 

This  gallant  battle  called  forth  intemperate 
commendation  from  the  headquarters  of  the 
Allies.  The  French  despatch  to  Washington 
told  officially  of  the  high  opinion  the  French 
held  of  it,  and  there  were  many  congratulatory 
telegrams  from  London.  The  press  of  London 
and  Paris  glowed  with  praises.  The  London 
Evening  News  wrote: 

"  Bravo,  the  young  Americans !  Nothing  in 
to-day's  battle  narrative  from  the  front  is  more 
exhilarating  than  the  account  of  their  fight  at 
Cantigny.  It  was  clean-cut  from  beginning  to 


THE  FIRST  TWO  BATTLES  235 

end,  like  one  of  their  countrymen's  short  stories, 
and  the  short  story  of  Cantigny  is  going  to  ex- 
pand into  a  full-length  novel,  which  will  write 
the  doom  of  the  Kaiser  and  Kaiserism.  We 
expected  it.  We  have  seen  those  young  Ameri- 
cans in  London,  and  merely  to  glance  at  them 
was  to  know  that  they  are  conquerors  and 
brothers  in  that  great  Anglo-Saxon-Latin  com- 
pact which  will  bring  down  the  Prussian  idol. 
.  .  .  They  do  not  swagger,  and  they  have  no 
war  illusions.  They  have  done  their  first  job 
with  swift  precision,  characteristic  of  the  United 
States,  and  Cantigny  will  one  day  be  repeated 
a  thousand-fold." 

The  Times  wrote: 

"Our  allies  know  the  significance  of  that  as 
well  as  we  do.  So,  too,  do  the  German  generals 
and  the  German  statesmen.  It  means  that  the 
last  great  factor  between  autocracy  and  free- 
dom is  coming  into  effective  play  on  the  battle- 
field. .  .  .  There  could  be  no  reflection  more 
heartening  for  the  Allies  or  more  dismaying  to 
their  adversaries." 

;'Their  adversaries,"  meanwhile,  were  doing 
what  they  could  to  keep  their  dismay  to  them- 


236  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

selves.  In  the  German  announcement  of  the 
loss  of  Cantigny  there  was  mention  only  of 
"the  enemy."  The  German  people  were  not 
to  know  for  a  while  that  the  "ridiculous  little 
American  Army"  had  got  to  work. 


CHAPTER  XXI 
TEUFEI^-HUNDEN 

NO  branch  of  service  in  the  American  Army 
was  so  quick  to  achieve  group  conscious- 
ness as  the  marines.  To  be  sure,  these  soldiers 
of  the  sea  had  a  considerable  tradition  behind 
them  before  they  came  to  France.  The  world 
is  never  so  peaceful  that  there  is  nothing  for  the 
marines  to  do.  Always  there  is  some  spot  for 
them  to  land  and  put  a  situation  into  hand.  It 
is  no  fault  of  the  marines  that  most  of  these 
brushes  have  been  little  affairs,  and  they  have 
found,  as  Mr.  Kipling  says,  that  "the  things 
that  you  learn  from  the  yellow  and  brown  will 
'elp  you  a  heap  with  the  white." 

The  Navy  Department  has  always  been  care- 
ful to  preserve  the  tradition  of  the  marines. 
The  organization  has  never  lacked  for  intelligent 
publicity.  "First  to  fight"  was  a  slogan  which 
brought  many  a  recruit  into  the  corps.  Even 
the  dreary  work  of  policing,  which  falls  largely 

237 


238  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

to  the  marines,  has  been  dramatized  to  a  cer- 
tain extent  by  that  fine  swaggering  couplet  of 
their  song: 

"If  the  army  or  the  navy  ever  gaze  on  heaven's  scenes, 
They  will  find  the  streets  are  guarded  by  United  States 
marines." 

The  belief  that  the  marines  would  make  a 
distinctive  mark  in  the  great  World  War  was 
practically  unanimous.  Army  officers  couldn't 
deny  it,  war  correspondents  hastened  to  pro- 
claim it,  and  the  Germans  admitted  it  by  be- 
stowing the  name  "Teufel-hunden"  (devil-dogs) 
on  the  marines  immediately  after  their  first  en- 
gagement. The  marines  themselves  were  sec- 
ond to  no  one  in  the  consciousness  of  their  own 
prowess. 

"I  understand,"  said  a  little  marine  just  two 
days  off  the  transport,  "that  this  Kaiser  isn't 
afraid  of  the  American  Army  so  much,  but  that 
he  is  afraid  of  the  marines." 

The  boy  didn't  say  whether  one  of  his  officers 
had  told  him  that,  but  his  belief  was  passionate 
and  complete.  However,  the  marines  did  not 
allow  their  high  confidence  to  interfere  in  any 


TEUFEL-HUNDEN  239 

way  with  their  preparations.  They  showed  the 
same  anxiety  to  make  good  on  the  training-fields 
that  they  later  displayed  on  the  line.  Their 
camp  in  the  American  area  was  just  a  bit  far- 
ther from  the  centre  of  things  than  that  of  any 
other  organization.  Whenever  there  was  a 
review  or  a  special  show  of  any  sort  for  a  dis- 
tinguished visitor,  the  marines  had  to  march 
twelve  miles  to  attend.  And  after  that  it  was 
twelve  miles  home  again.  But  they  thrived  on 
hard  work.  They  shot,  bayoneted,  and  bombed 
just  a  little  better  than  any  other  organization 
in  the  first  division.  Sometimes  individual  ma- 
rines would  complain  a  little  about  the  fact  that 
they  were  worked  harder  than  any  men  in  the 
division,  but  they  always  took  care  to  add  that 
they  had  finished  the  construction  of  their 
practice-trench  system  days  before  any  of  the 
others.  When  they  mentioned  the  fact  that 
they  had  achieved  this  result  by  working  in  day 
and  night  shifts  it  was  never  possible  to  tell 
whether  they  were  airing  a  grievance  or  making 
a  boast.  It  is  probable  that  they  were  some- 
thing of  the  mind  of  Job,  whose  boils  were  both 
a  tribulation  and  a  triumph. 


240  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

There  was  no  doubt  as  to  the  opinion  of  the 
marines  when  it  seemed  for  a  time  as  if  they 
might  not  get  into  the  fighting.  They  did  not 
go  into  the  trenches  with  the  first  division,  but 
were  broken  up  and  sent  to  various  points  for 
police  duty.  Of  course  they  were  bitterly  dis- 
appointed, but  they  merely  policed  a  little 
harder,  and  it  was  a  severe  winter  for  soldiers 
who  went  about  with  their  overcoats  unbut- 
toned, or  committed  other  breaches  of  military 
regulations. 

Since  the  marines  did  hard  work  well,  they 
were  rewarded  by  more  hard  work,  and  this 
was  labor  more  to  then*  taste.  The  reward 
came  suddenly.  On  May  30  a  unit  of  marines 
was  in  a  training-camp  so  far  back  of  the  lines 
that  it  was  impossible  to  hear  the  sound  of  the 
guns  even  when  the  Germans  turned  everything 
loose  for  a  big  offensive.  On  that  same  day  the 
Germans  reached  the  Marne  east  of  Chateau - 
Thierry  and  began  an  advance  along  the  north 
bank  toward  the  city.  That  night  the  marines 
were  ordered  to  the  front. 

They  rode  almost  a  hundred  kilometres  to 
get  into  the  fight.  It  was  late  afternoon  when 


TEUFEL-HUNDEN  241 

they  reached  a  hill  overlooking  Chateau-Thierry. 
French  guns  all  about  them  were  being  fired  up 
to  their  very  limit  or  a  little  beyond.  The  Ger- 
mans were  coming  on.  These  marines  had 
never  been  in  a  battle  before,  with  the  exception 
of  a  few  who  had  chased  little  brown  rebels  in 
various  brief  encounters  on  small  islands.  They 
had  never  been  under  shell  fire.  And  this  their 
first  engagement  was  one  of  the  biggest  in  the 
greatest  war  in  history.  From  the  hill  they 
could  see  houses  fold  up  and  fields  pucker  under 
the  pounding  of  big  guns.  The  marines  were 
told  that  as  soon  as  darkness  came  they  would 
march  into  the  town  and  hold  the  bridges 
against  the  German  Army,  which  was  coming 
on.  Somebody  asked  a  French  officer  some 
days  later  how  these  green  troops  had  taken 
their  experience  as  they  waited  the  word  to  go 
forward.  "They  were  concombres,"  said  the 
Frenchman.  Our  word  is  cucumbers. 

Finally,  the  order  came  for  the  advance.  It 
was  a  dark  night,  but  the  marines  could  see 
their  way  forward  well  enough.  The  German 
bombardment  had  set  fire  to  the  railroad- 
station.  The  Americans  kept  in  the  shadows  as 


much  as  they  could,  but  they  danced  around  so 
much  that  it  was  difficult.  They  placed  their 
machine-guns  here  and  there  behind  walls  and 
new  barricades,  so  that  they  could  enfilade  the 
approaches  to  the  bridges  and  the  streets  on 
the  opposite  side  of  the  river.  One  lieutenant 
with  twelve  men  and  two  guns  took  up  a  posi- 
tion across  the  river.  It  was  up  to  him  to 
stand  off  the  first  rush. 

The  shelling  from  the  enemy  guns  was  inten- 
sified during  the  night,  but  the  infantry  had 
not  yet  reached  the  town.  It  was  five  o'clock 
of  a  bright  morning  when  the  little  advance 
post  of  the  Americans  saw  the  Germans  coming 
across  the  open  field  toward  the  river.  They 
were  marching  along  carelessly  in  two  columns 
and  there  were  twelve  men  in  every  line.  One 
of  the  machine-guns  swung  her  nose  around  a 
little  and  the  fight  was  on.  At  last  the  Ameri- 
can was  definitely  in  one  of  the  major  engage- 
ments of  the  war.  American  machine-gunners 
were  doing  their  bit  to  block  the  advance  on 
Paris.  All  day  long  the  marines  held  the  Ger- 
mans back  with  their  machine-guns.  And  that 
night  they  beat  back  a  German  mass  attack 


TEUFEL-HUNDEN  243 

when  the  Bodies  came  on  and  on  in  waves, 
with  men  locked  arm  in  arm.  They  could  hear 
them,  for  they  sang  as  they  rushed  forward, 
and  the  machine-gunners  pumped  their  bullets 
into  the  spots  where  the  notes  were  loudest. 

The  next  day  the  Americans  were  forced  to 
give  some  ground  when  the  order  came  to  retire, 
but  they  had  been  through,  perhaps,  the  most 
intensive  two  days  of  training  which  ever  fell 
to  the  lot  of  green  troops. 

The  marines  did  not  have  to  wait  long  for  re- 
taliation. Other  units  of  marines  from  other 
camps  had  been  hurrying  up  to  the  front,  and 
on  June  6  an  offensive  was  launched  on  a  front 
of  two  and  a  half  miles.  The  first  day's  gain 
was  two  and  three-sixteenth  miles  and  100 
prisoners  were  captured.  This  attack  yielded 
all  the  important  high  ground  northwest  of 
Chateau-Thierry.  The  marines  did  not  rest 
with  this  gain.  They  struck  again  at  five 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  and  by  June  7  the 
attack  had  grown  to  much  greater  proportions. 
Four  villages,  Vinly,  Veuilly-la-Poterie,  Torcy, 
and  Bouresches,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
French  and  Americans.  The  thrust  was  pressed 


244  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

to  a  maximum  depth  of  two  miles  on  a  ten- 
mile  front.  More  than  300  prisoners  were 
captured  by  the  Americans.  The  attack  was 
carried  out  under  American  command,  Major- 
General  James  G.  Harbord  being  in  charge  of 
the  operation. 

As  in  the  Cantigny  offensive,  the  Americans 
worked  with  great  speed,  and  showed  that  they 
could  make  the  rifle  an  effective  weapon  even 
under  the  changed  conditions  of  modern  war- 
fare. But  though  they  were  swift  they  were 
not  silent.  They  went  over  the  top  shouting 
like  Indians,  and  they  kept  up  the  noise  as 
they  went  forward.  The  second  attack  was 
carried  out  by  the  same  men  who  had  advanced 
in  the  morning.  The  early  showing  had  been 
so  promising  that  it  was  decided  to  go  on,  par- 
ticularly as  the  Germans  seemed  to  be  some- 
what shaken  by  the  violence  of  the  assault.  In 
this  new  sweep  the  marines  took  ground  on 
either  side  of  Belleau  Wood.  They  also  cap- 
tured the  ravine  south  of  Torcy.  The  Ger- 
mans were  not  able  to  organize  an  effective 
counter-attack  immediately,  for  they  had  been 
too  much  surprised  by  the  thrust.  Also  the 


TEUFEL-HUNDEN  245 

effective  work  of  the  American  artillery  made  it 
difficult  for  the  Germans  to  bring  up  fresh  troops. 

In  the  rough  country  over  which  the  battle 
was  fought  there  was  opportunity  for  the  fight 
to  disintegrate  into  the  little  eddies  where  indi- 
vidual initiative  counts  for  so  much.  In  a  fight 
near  Le  Thiolet,  Captain  James  O.  Green,  Jr., 
found  himself  cut  off  by  the  Germans.  He  was 
accompanied  by  five  privates.  Back  at  regi- 
mental headquarters  Green  had  already  been 
reported  as  killed  or  captured.  He  proved  the 
need  of  clerical  revision,  for  he  and  his  men 
fought  their  way  back  to  the  American  lines. 
At  one  point  ten  Germans  tried  to  intercept 
him,  but  the  six  Americans  succeeded  in  killing 
or  wounding  every  member  of  the  enemy  party. 
A  single  marine  who  was  taking  back  a  prisoner 
ran  into  two  German  officers  and  ten  men.  He 
fell  upon  them  with  rifle  and  bayonet  and  dis- 
posed of  both  officers  and  several  of  the  men. 
Then  he  made  his  escape.  Somebody  told  the 
marine  when  he  got  back  to  the  American  lines 
that  he  certainly  had  been  "in  luck." 

"Hell!  no,"  said  the  fighting  man;  "they 
took  my  prisoner  away  from  me." 


246  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

Still  another  marine  was  captured  while 
dazed  by  a  blow  on  the  head.  He  recovered  in 
time  to  deal  his  captor  a  tremendous  punch  on 
the  jaw,  and  made  his  way  back  to  the  Ameri- 
can lines.  The  favorite  slogan  of  the  Ameri- 
cans was:  "Each  man  get  a  German;  don't  let 
a  German  get  you." 

Early  on  June  8  the  Germans  launched  a 
counter-attack  against  the  American  position 
between  Bouresches  and  Le  Thiolet.  This  at- 
tack broke  down.  The  trenches  which  the 
Americans  held  were  new  and  shallow,  but  the 
troops  were  well  supplied  with  machine-guns, 
and  the  German  infantry  never  got  closer  than 
within  a  couple  of  hundred  yards  of  the  posi- 
tion. The  marines  were  not  yet  content  with 
their  success.  They  took  the  initiative  again 
on  June  10  and  smashed  into  the  German  lines 
for  about  two-thirds  of  a  mile  on  a  600-yard 
front.  In  this  attack  two  minenwerfer  were 
captured.  The  object  of  the  attack  was  to 
clean  out  Belleau  Wood.  The  Germans  retained 
only  the  northern  fringe. 

By  this  time  the  offensive  had  ceased  to  be 
wholly  a  marine  affair.  The  9th  and  23d 


TEUFEL-HUNDEN  247 

Regiments  of  infantry,  comprising  what  is 
known  as  the  Syracuse  Brigade,  took  up  their 
positions  on  the  right  of  the  soldiers  of  the  sea. 
During  the  next  few  days  the  Germans  made 
several  violent  counter-attacks,  but  without 
success,  and  on  June  26  the  Americans  pushed 
their  gains  still  further  by  a  successful  assault 
south  of  Torcy,  in  which  more  than  250  Ger- 
mans were  captured.  This  victory  gave  Persh- 
ing's  men  absolute  command  of  the  Bois  de 
Belleau,  which  was  the  strategic  point  for  which 
the  Germans  had  fought  so  hard. 

It  was  after  the  Chateau-Thierry  offensive 
that  for  the  first  time  the  American  Army  won 
a  place  in  the  German  official  communique. 
Before  that  they  had  been  simply  "the  enemy," 
and  once,  upon  the  occasion  of  a  successful  Ger- 
man raid,  North  American  troops.  But  now 
Berlin  unbent  a  little  and  used  the  term  "an 
American  regiment."  Germany  was  prepared 
to  admit  that  America  was  in  the  war.  It  is 
just  possible  that  some  of  their  men  who  broke 
before  the  rush  of  the  marines  returned  to  give 
headquarters  the  information. 


WHILE  the  American  Army  was  showing 
its  quality  in  the  minor  battles  of  Seiche- 
prey,  Cantigny,  Chateau-Thierry,  and  Vaux, 
and  its  quantity  was  showing  itself  in  leaps  of 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  men  a  month,  a  des- 
tiny was  shaping  for  it,  equally  in  circumstances 
and  in  the  mind  of  Generalissimo  Foch,  which 
was  to  be  even  greater  than  that  it  had  sacri- 
ficed in  late  March,  when  it  submerged  its  iden- 
tity and  said:  "Put  us  where  you  will." 

For  when,  on  July  18,  the  fifth  German 
offensive  suddenly  shivered  into  momentary 
equilibrium  and  then  rolled  back,  with  Foch 
and  the  Allies  pounding  behind  it,  and  when 
this  counter-attack  developed  into  a  continuing 
offensive  which  was  to  straighten  the  Marne 
salient  and  throw  back  the  Germans  from  be- 
fore Amiens  and  do  the  future  only  knows 
what  else  besides,  the  Allied  world  said,  in  one 

248 


THE  ARMY  OF  MANOEUVRE  249 

voice:  "Foch  has  found  his  army  of  manoeuvre, 
and  it's  the  Americans." 

This  "army  of  manoeuvre"  has  always  been 
the  king-pin  of  French  strategy.  While  the 
Germans  were  trying  two  systems — first,  the 
broad  front  attack  which  trusted  to  overbear 
by  sheer  weight  anything  which  opposed  it,  and, 
second,  the  so-called  Hutier  system  of  drain- 
ing the  line  of  all  its  best  fighters,  and  organiz- 
ing shock  troops  immeasurably  above  the  aver- 
age for  offensive,  while  the  line  was  held  by 
the  rag-tag  and  bobtail — the  French  stuck  to 
their  traditional  system.  This  was  to  hold  the 
lines  with  the  lightest  possible  number  of  men, 
of  the  highest  possible  caliber,  and  to  thrust 
with  a  mobile  force,  foot-loose  and  ready  to 
be  swung  wherever  a  spot  seemed  likely  to 
give  way. 

It  was  with  the  "army  of  manoeuvre," 
thrown  up  from  Paris  in  frantic  haste  by 
Gallieni,  in  taxicabs  and  trucks,  that  General 
Foch  made  the  miraculous  plunge  through  the 
Saxon  army  at  Fere-en-Tardenois,  in  September, 
1914,  which  saved  the  first  battle  of  the  Marne. 

When   General   Foch   became  generalissimo, 


250  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

in  late  March,  just  after  the  first  German  of- 
fensive on  March  21  had  thrown  the  British 
back,  and  when  the  French  were  retreating  at 
Montdidier,  the  expectation  universally  was 
that  the  Allies  would  begin  an  offensive,  within 
the  shortest  possible  time.  Foch  had  been 
quoted  all  over  the  world  as  saying  that  "de- 
fensive fighting  was  no  defense."  Yet  April, 
May,  and  June  passed,  and  part  of  July,  and 
except  for  scattering  attacks  along  the  Marne 
salient,  and  patient  rear-guard  action  when  the 
retreats  were  necessary,  the  Allies  made  no 
move. 

The  Austrian  debacle  came  and  went.  Foch 
had  Italy  off  his  mind,  and  the  Italians  were 
more  than  taking  care  of  themselves.  Still  he 
did  not  strike.  And  finally  it  became  clear 
that  he  was  showing  this  long  patience  because 
he  wanted  what  every  Frenchman  wants  first 
in  every  battle,  and  what  he  did  not  surely 
have  until  July — his  army  of  manoeuvre. 

The  fitness  of  the  American  Army  for  this 
brilliant  use  was  dual :  first,  that  its  source  was 
virtually  inexhaustible;  second,  that  it  was 
better  at  offensive  than  defensive  fighting. 


251 

The  American  Army  had  a  quality,  and  the 
defect  of  that  quality:  it  wanted  to  get  to 
Berlin  regardless  of  tactics.  And  while  General 
Foch  was  trusting  to  time  to  prove  to  them 
that,  pleasant  or  unpleasant,  the  tactics  had  to 
be  observed,  he  turned  their  spectacular  fire 
and  exuberance  to  direct  account. 

Of  course,  the  American  troops  in  France 
then  ready  to  fight  could  not  alone  rnake  up 
the  Allied  army  of  manoeuvre.  They  were 
the  core  of  it,  however,  and  their  growing  num- 
bers guaranteed  it  almost  indefinitely,  so  that 
the  attack  of  which  it  was  to  be  the  backbone 
could  safely  be  begun.  Some  of  the  troops 
originally  intended  for  welding  with  the  Brit- 
ish and  French  Armies  were  kept  in  the  line 
without  change. 

But  in  the  main  the  statement  was  true: 
the  American  Army  was  to  rove  behind  the 
Allied  lines  till  Foch  discovered  or  divined  a 
German  weakness  to  strike  into. 

In  the  second  battle  of  the  Marne,  begun 
that  July  18,  when  the  Allies  took  the  offen- 
sive again  for  the  first  time  in  more  than  a 
year,  the  crown  prince  and  his  army  of  approxi- 


252  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

mately  half  a  million  were  tucked  down  in  the 
Marne  salient,  driving  for  Paris.  The  German 
line  came  down  from  Soissons  to  Chateau* 
Thierry,  ran  east  from  Chateau-Thierry  along 
the  Marne  River,  then  turned  up  again  to 
Rheims.  In  a  space  about  thirty  miles  square 
the  crown  prince  had  imprudently  poured  all 
his  troops,  which,  for  the  fifth  offensive,  begun 
July  15,  included  about  a  third  of  the  man- 
power of  the  western  front. 

The  Allied  troops  lying  around  the  three  sides 
of  this  salient  were  French  and  American  on 
the  western  side,  Americans  across  the  bottom, 
east  from  Chateau-Thierry,  and  French,  British, 
and  Italian  from  the  Marne  up  to  Rheims. 
While  the  French  and  British  were  squeezing 
in  the  two  sides  at  the  top,  it  was  the  American 
job  to  keep  the  Germans  from  bursting  out 
from  the  bottom,  and,  if  possible,  to  break 
through  or  roll  them  back. 

The  Americans  began  the  attack  east  of 
Chateau-Thierry,  where  the  Germans  had 
crossed  the  Marne  and  lay  a  few  miles  to  the 
south  of  it.  There  had  been  lesser  actions  here 
for  several  days,  in  the  process  of  stopping  the 


THE  ARMY  OF  MANOEUVRE  253 

enemy  offensive,  and  by  the  morning  of  the 
18th  the  Americans  dominated  the  positions 
around  the  Marne.  The  first  day  of  the 
counter-offensive  had  magnificent  results.  The 
Germans  were  forced  back  on  a  28-mile  front, 
.for  a  depth  varying  from  3  to  6  miles,  and 
the  Americans  captured  4,000  prisoners  and 
50  guns.  Twenty  French  towns  were  delivered, 
and  the  Germans  began  what  appeared  to  be  a 
precipitate  retreat.  Foch's  attack  was  mainly 
on  the  flank  of  the  crown  prince's  army,  which 
had  been  left  exposed  in  the  rush  toward  Eper- 
nay  and  Chalons,  far  south  of  the  Marne. 

The  infantry  attack  was  made  with  little  or 
no  artillery  preparation.  The  German  general, 
Von  Boehm,  was  plainly  caught  napping. 

The  communiques  of  both  sides  were  for 
once  in  agreement.  The  French  said:  "After 
having  broken  the  German  offensive  on  the 
Champagne  and  Rheims  mountain  fronts  on 
the  15th,  16th,  and  17th,  the  French  troops,  in 
conjunction  with  the  American  forces,  attacked 
the  German  positions  on  the  18th,  between 
the  Aisne  and  the  Marne  on  a  front  of  forty- 
five  kilometres  [about  twenty-eight  miles].  We 


254  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

have  made  an  important  advance  into  the 
enemy  lines,  and  have  reached  the  plateau 
dominating  Soissons  .  .  .  more  than  twenty 
villages  have  been  retaken  by  the  admirable 
dash  of  the  Franco-American  troops.  .  .  .  South 
of  the  Ourcq  our  troops  have  gone  beyond  the 
general  line  of  Marizy,  Ste.-Genevieve,  Haut- 
vesnes,  and  Belleau." 

The  German  communique  said:  "Between 
the  Aisne  and  the  Marne,  the  French  attacked 
with  strong  forces  and  tanks,  and  captured 
some  ground."  Later  in  the  same  communique 
the  conclusion  was  drawn:  "The  battle  was  de- 
cided in  our  favor." 

On  the  second  day,  while  the  march  under 
Soissons  continued,  and  there  were  scattering 
gains  on  the  Marne  side,  the  number  of  Allied 
prisoners  grew  to  17,000,  and  the  number  of 
guns  captured  to  360.  Nobody  could  tell,  at 
this  point,  whether  the  crown  prince's  army 
was  retreating  voluntarily  or  involuntarily.  In 
many  places  the  Germans  were  taken  by  Ameri- 
can soldiers  from  the  peaceful  pursuit  of  cutting 
wheat  behind  the  lines.  Some  high  officers 
were  nabbed  from  their  beds.  On  the  other 


THE  ARMY  OF  MANCEUVRE  255 

hand,  the  fact  that  the  German  rear-guard 
actions  were  chiefly  with  machine-guns  seemed 
to  indicate  that  they  were  moving  their  heavy 
pieces  back  in  fair  orderliness. 

On  the  third  day  the  Germans  were  thrown 
back  over  the  Marne,  and  the  crown  prince, 
having  sent  an  unavailing  plea  to  Prince  Rup- 
precht  for  new  troops,  suddenly  showed  fight 
with  the  crack  Prussian  guards. 

These  guards  had  their  worst  failure  of  the 
war  when  they  met  the  Americans.  It  is  diffi- 
cult to  prevent  the  statement  from  sounding 
offensively  boastful.  It  is,  none  the  less,  true. 
The  Germans,  having  decided  that  their  re- 
treat was  wearing  the  look  of  utter  rout,  and 
that  they  must  resist  fiercely  enough  to  stop  it, 
risked  a  British  break-through  to  the  north  by 
throwing  in  Ludendorf's  prize  soldiers  above 
the  Marne.  And  although  the  American  total 
of  prisoners  around  Soissons  had  risen  to  nearly 
6,000,  and  though  they  did  force  back  the  Prus- 
sian guard,  they  did  not  make  prisoners  from 
their  number.  One  American  after  another 
told,  afterward,  with  a  sort  of  reluctant  ad- 
miration, that  the  Prussian  guard  had  died 


256  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

where  it  stood.  This  fighting  near  the  Ourcq, 
and  fatally  near  the  vitals  of  the  encircled 
crown  prince,  was  the  most  desperate  of  the 
second  Marne  battle. 

On  July  21  Chateau-Thierry  was  given  up 
by  the  Germans,  and  the  pursuing  Allies, 
French  .  and  American,  drove  the  enemy  be- 
yond the  highroad  to  Soissons,  and  threatened 
the  only  highway  of  retreat,  as  well  as  the 
German  stores.  The  supply-centre  within  the 
salient  was  Fere-en-Tardenois,  and  it  was  being 
raked  by  Allied  guns  from  both  sides  of  the 
salient. 

The  character  of  the  fighting  changed  again, 
so  that  again  it  was  impossible  to  make  sure 
if  Von  Boehm  intended  to  stand  somewhere 
north  of  the  Marne  and  put  up  a  fight,  or  if  he 
intended  to  make  all  speed  back  to  a  straight 
line  between  Soissons  and  Rheims.  The  re- 
sistance was  by  machine-gun,  so  that  Ameri- 
cans, having  their  first  big  experience  with  the 
enemy,  insisted  that  he  had  nothing  but  ma- 
chine-guns to  trust  to.  It  is,  of  course,  possible 
that  the  crown  prince  and  Von  Boehm  knew 
no  more  than  anybody  else  whether  they  were 


THE  ARMY  OF  MANOEUVRE  257 

going  to  clear  out,  men  and  supplies,  or  whether 
they  would  stop  again  and  fight  face  foremost. 

On  July  22  the  German  command  answered 
the  question  at  least  partially.  On  a  line  well 
above  the  Marne,  they  brought  the  big  guns 
into  play,  and  poured  in  shock  troops.  Air- 
planes from  the  Allied  lines  discovered,  however, 
that  the  Germans  were  burning  towns  and  store- 
houses for  many  miles  behind  the  line. 

The  pressure  on  the  Germans  was  being 
brought  from  the  south,  where  the  Americans 
were  six  or  seven  miles  above  Chateau-Thierry, 
and  from  the  west  and  north,  where  the  Franco- 
American  troops  were  flaying  the  exposed  side. 

The  stiffened  resistance  and  the  German  ar- 
tillery slowed,  but  could  not  stop,  the  Allied 
advance.  The  eastern  side  of  the  salient,  from 
the  Marne  to  Rheims,  bore  some  desperate 
blows,  but  did  not  give  way.  As  the  pincers 
closed  in,  at  the  top  of  the  salient,  the  German 
command  appeared  to  go  back  to  its  original 
plan  of  attacking  Rheims  from  the  south. 

This  was  the  side  on  which  British  and 
Italian  troops  were  co-operating  with  the  French, 
and  the  German  command  got  for  its  pains  in 


258  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

that  direction  a  counter-attack  which  nar- 
rowed the  distance  from  battle-line  to  battle- 
line  across  the  top  of  the  salient.  The  French 
menaced  Fere-en-Tardenois,  the  German  base 
of  supplies. 

Allied  aviators  bombed  these  stores,  the  long- 
range  guns  pounded  at  them,  and  what  with 
these  and  the  conflagrations  started  defensively 
by  the  Germans  the  Marne  salient  was  a  cal- 
dron which  turned  the  skies  blood-red. 

On  July  24  the  ground  gained  all  along  the 
line  averaged  two  miles.  The  British  south- 
west of  Rheims  made  a  damaging  curve  inward, 
and  the  shove  around  the  other  two  sides  was 
fairly  even. 

On  July  25,  one  week  from  the  beginning 
of  the  offensive,  the  Americans  and  French  from 
the  Soissons  side  and  the  British  and  French 
from  the  Rheims  side  had  squeezed  in  the 
neck  of  the  trap  till  it  measured  only  twenty- 
one  miles.  The  French  arrived  within  three 
miles  of  Fere-en-Tardenois,  and  although  the 
German  resistance  increased  again,  the  evacua- 
tion of  Fere  and  the  removal  of  stores  to  Fismes, 
far  up  on  the  straight  line,  were  foreshadowed. 


THE  ARMY  OF  MANOEUVRE  259 

The  road  leading  between  the  two  supply- 
bases  was  shelled  incessantly,  and  the  difficulties 
of  resistance  within  the  fast-narrowing  salient 
became  almost  superhuman.  But  the  rear- 
guard of  the  Germans  "died  to  a  man,"  to 
quote  the  observers,  and  the  rear  action  held 
the  Allied  gains  to  a  few  miles  daily. 

A  definite  retreat  began  on  the  morning  of 
July  27,  with  what  the  airmen  reported  as 
an  obvious  determination  to  make  a  stand  on 
the  Ourcq.  The  forest  of  Fere  was  taken,  and 
many  villages,  but  the  fighting  was  insignificant 
because,  in  the  language  of  the  communiques, 
"our  forces  lost  contact  with  the  enemy." 
Possibly  this  is  what  the  famous  phrase  of  the 
Ludendorf  communique,  "The  enemy  evaded 
us,"  had  in  mind. 

There  was  a  certain  psychological  stupidity 
in  this  German  decision  to  make  a  stand  on  the 
Ourcq.  It  was  on  the  Ourcq  that  Joffre  and 
Foch  made  the  fatal  stroke  of  the  first  Marne 
battle,  and  the  very  name  of  the  river  inspired 
France. 

While  this  retreat  was  in  progress,  the  swiftest 
of  the  battle,  the  German  communique  read: 


260  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

"  Between  the  Ourcq  and  the  Marne,  the  enemy's 
resistance  has  broken  down.  Our  troops,  with 
those  of  our  allies,  are  in  pursuit." 

On  the  29th  the  Germans  crossed  the  Ourcq, 
with  the  Americans  behind  them.  The  "pur- 
suit" continued.  The  American  troops,  with 
French  to  the  right  and  left  of  them,  forced  the 
enemy  to  within  a  mile  of  the  Vesle,  where  his 
halt  had  no  hope  of  being  more  than  temporary. 
The  brilliant  charge  across  the  Ourcq  was  done 
by  New  Yorkers— the  "fighting  69th,"  which 
refuses  to  be  known  by  its  new  name  of  "  165th." 
Edwin  L.  James,  writing  of  this  charge  for  the 
New  York  Times,  said:  "There  is  doubt  if  any 
chapter  of  our  fighting  reached  the  thrills  of 
our  charge  across  the  Ourcq  yesterday.  Ameri- 
cans of  indomitable  spirit  met  a  veritable  hell 
of  machine-guns,  shells,  gas,  and  bombs  in  a 
strong  position,  and  broke  through  with  such  vio- 
lence that  they  made  a  salient  jutting  into  the 
enemy  line  beyond  what  the  schedule  called  for." 

This  American  charge  cured  the  Germans  of 
any  intention  to  stay  on  the  Ourcq.  The  resis- 
tance, after  that  first  attack,  was  sporadic  and 
ineffectual.  Village  after  village  was  reclaimed. 


THE  ARMY  OF  MAN(EUVRE  261 

It  became  plain  that  the  whole  Marne  salient 
was  to  be  obliterated,  and  that  the  Germans 
could  not  stop  till  they  reached  the  thirty-six- 
mile  stretch  directly  from  Soissons  to  Rheims, 
at  which  they  had  strong  intrenchments. 

One  terrific  stand  was  made  by  the  Germans 
at  Sergy,  just  above  the  Ourcq.  It  changed 
hands  nine  times  during  twenty-four  hours, 
with  Americans  fighting  hand  to  hand  with  the 
Prussian  guards.  Sergy  was  taken  in  the  first 
rush  over  the  Ourcq,  but  a  counter-attack  by 
the  Prussian  Fourth  Guard  Division,  under 
artillery  barrage,  gave  them  the  city.  Once 
these  guards  were  in  the  city,  the  artillery  bar- 
rage could  no  longer  play  over  it,  and  to  the 
stupefaction  of  the  Germans,  the  Americans 
rushed  in  and  fought  hand  to  hand  till  they 
cleared  the  town,  while  the  German  guns  were 
powerless.  Time  and  again  this  process  was 
repeated,  till  at  last  the  Germans  gave  it  up 
and  joined  the  general  retreat.  This  counter- 
attack is  believed,  however,  to  have  enabled 
the  crown  prince  to  reclaim  great  stores  of 
supplies  in  a  woods  north  of  the  village. 

At  the  end  of  these  two  weeks  of  infantry 


262  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

fighting  the  artillery  took  up  the  task,  and  the 
infantry  rested  for  a  day,  though  on  August  % 
they  made  a  two-mile  gain. 

The  total  of  German  prisoners  for  that  fort- 
night was  33,400. 

The  hideous  fighting  above  the  Ourcq  be- 
tween the  Americans  and  the  picked  German 
divisions  continued  for  days,  with  each  day 
marking  a  small  advance  for  the  Americans. 
On  August  2  the  French  regained  Soissons. 

On  August  3  the  Allies  advanced  six  miles, 
retook  fifty  villages,  and  reached  the  south 
bank  of  the  Vesle.  ,  American  forces  entered 
Fismes.  The  salient  was  annihilated. 

On  August  4  Fismes  fell,  and  the  great 
supply  and  ammunition  depot  became  Allied 
property.  The  enemy  was  forced  to  cross  the 
Vesle,  and  victory  on  victory  was  reported 
along  the  line  which  so  lately  had  dipped  into 
the  nerve-centres  of  France. 

The  second  battle  of  the  Marne  had  been 
won. 

The  part  of  it  achieved  by  America  could  not 
fail  to  stir  her  heart  to  pride  and  to  exaltation. 
Though  numerically  the  troops  were  few  enough, 


THE  ARMY  OF  MANOEUVRE  263 

not  more  than  270,000,  they  traversed  the  long- 
est distance  of  the  salient,  from  Vaux,  at  its 
lowest  tip,  to  Fismes,  on  the  straight  line. 
Their  fighting  called  forth  comment  from  French 
officers  who  had  been  through  the  four  years 
of  the  war,  which  could  not  be  called  less  than 
rapturous.  "  They  are  glorious,  the  Americans," 
rang  through  France.  Clemenceau,  speaking 
of  Foch  at  the  end  of  the  battle  to  which  the 
Americans  had  contributed  so  much,  said:  "He 
looks  twenty  years  younger."  He  had  both 
found  and  proved  his  "army  of  manoeuvre." 

The  story  of  this  first  battle's  heroes  must 
wait,  though  it  will  be  long  enough  when  it 
comes,  and  can  include  something  more  hearten- 
ing than  that  "a  boy  from  New  England  did 
thus  and  so,"  and  "the  army  is  thrilled  by  the 
heroic  feat  of of  Michigan." 

Probably  the  first  death  in  France  in  which 
the  whole  nation  grieved  was  that  of  young 
Quentin  Roosevelt,  aviation  lieutenant,  son  of 
the  ex-President,  who  fell  in  an  air  fight  in  the 
preliminary  to  the  battle  on  July  17.  He  was 
last  seen  in  a  fight  with  two  enemy  planes. 
His  machine  fell  within  the  German  lines. 


264  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

Weeks  later  the  onward  Allied  army  found  his 
grave,  marked,  in  English,  "Lieutenant  Quentin 
Roosevelt,  buried  by  the  Germans,"  and  an 
official  despatch  from  Germany  stated  that  he 
had  been  buried  with  full  military  honors. 

Colonel  Roosevelt  made  a  brief  statement: 
"Quen  tin's  mother  and  I  are  very  glad  that  he 
got  to  the  front,  and  had  a  chance  to  render 
some  service  to  his  country  and  to  show  the 
stuff  there  was  in  him  before  his  fate  befell 
him."  The  news  of  his  death  arrived  just  a 
few  weeks  after  the  news  that  he  had  downed 
his  first  German  plane.  The  simple  sincerity 
of  this  statement,  and  its  courage,  gave  an  ex- 
ample to  the  mothers  and  fathers  of  fighters 
which  no  one  feared  they  would  fail  to  come  up 
to.  And  when  the  casualty  lists  from  the 
second  Marne  battle  came  in,  every  bereave- 
ment was  stanched  by  the  fact  that  "they  had 
shown  the  stuff  there  was  in  them." 

Certainly  not  least  in  importance  was  the 
fact  that  they  had  shown  it  to  the  Germans. 
An  official  German  Army  report  was  captured, 
July  7,  on  an  officer  taken  in  the  Marne 
region.  After  giving  a  prodigious  amount  of 


THE  ARMY  OF  MANOEUVRE  265 

detail  concerning  the  American  Army,  its  com- 
position, destination,  and  so  on,  it  appended 
the  following  opinion: 

"The  2d  American  Division  may  be  classi- 
fied as  a  very  good  division,  perhaps  even  as 
assault  troops.  The  various  attacks  of  both 
regiments  on  Belleau  Wood  were  carried  out 
with  dash  and  recklessness.  The  moral  effect 
of  our  firearms  did  not  materially  check  the 
advance  of  the  infantry.  The  nerves  of  the 
Americans  are  still  unshaken.  .  .  .  Only  a 
few  of  the  troops  are  of  pure  American  origin; 
the  majority  is  of  German,  Dutch,  and  Italian 
parentage,  but  these  semi-Americans,  almost 
all  of  whom  were  born  in  America  and  never 
have  been  in  Europe,  fully  feel  themselves  to 
be  true-born  sons  of  their  country." 


CHAPTER  XXIII 
ST.  MIHffiL 

T  TISTORIANS  and  military  experts  are  fond 
-*--•-  of  taking  one  particular  battle  or  cam- 
paign, and  saying:  "This  was  decisive."  It 
enables  one  to  simplify  history,  to  be  sure,  but 
often  any  such  process  is  more  simple  than 
truthful.  After  all,  every  battle  is  to  some 
degree  decisive,  and  the  great  actions  of  the 
war  are  so  closely  connected  with  smaller  ones 
that  it  is  difficult  to  separate  them.  It  is  the 
fashion  now  to  speak  of  the  second  battle  of 
the  Marne  as  the  deciding  factor  in  the  war. 
Indeed,  there  is  one  school  of  strategists  which 
goes  back  to  the  first  Marne,  and  speaks  as  if 
nothing  which  happened  after  that  really  mat- 
tered. 

In  this  spirit,  it  is  true,  that  the  great  tide 
in  the  allied  fortunes  which  began  at  Chateau- 
Thierry  and  swept  higher  and  higher  until  the 
Germans  had  been  smashed  in  the  second 
battle  of  the  Marne,  did  put  a  new  complexion 

266 


ST.    MIHIEL  267 

on  the  war.  The  battle  definitely  robbed  the 
German  offensive  of  its  threat.  Paris  was 
saved,  in  all  human  probability,  from  ever 
coming  into  danger  again  during  the  course  of 
the  war.  Nevertheless,  it  is  far-fetched  to  take 
the  attitude  that  the  war  had  already  been 
won  early  in  August.  It  was  evident  by  this 
time  that  the  German  Army  had  suffered  a 
great  defeat.  Perhaps  a  great  disaster  would 
be  better.  And  yet  other  armies  have  suffered 
great  disasters  and  grown  again  to  power  and 
success.  The  plight  of  the  Germans  was  cer- 
tainly little  worse  than  that  of  the  Italians  after 
the  German  offensive,  and  yet  everybody  knows 
that  the  Italian  Army  came  back  from  that  de- 
feat to  final  victory. 

Morale  is  subject  to  miracles,  and  soldiers  can 
be  born  again.  There  might  have  been  com- 
binations of  circumstances  which  would  have 
permitted  the  German  Army  to  recover  from 
its  fearful  defeat  and  find  again  its  old  arro- 
gance and  confidence.  Only  it  had  no  rest.  It 
is  fitting,  then,  that  the  men  of  all  the  armies 
who  completed  the  downfall  of  the  Germans  in 
the  marvellous  campaigns  at  the  close  of  the 


268  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

year  1918  should  have  due  credit.  Their  work 
was  also  decisive.  No  one  can  tell  what 
would  have  happened  to  the  German  Army  if 
it  had  not  been  subjected  to  the  steady  pound- 
ing of  the  allied  armies. 

No  attempt  will  be  made  here  to  estimate 
the  relative  importance  of  the  work  done  by 
the  various  allied  armies  in  the  closing  cam- 
paigns of  the  war.  This  is  an  interesting,  al- 
though somewhat  ungrateful,  task  for  military 
experts.  In  this  account  we  are  dealing  simply 
with  the  fortunes  of  the  American  Army.  It 
might  not  be  amiss  to  suggest  that  the  final 
victories  of  the  war  were  won  by  team-play,, 
and  that  in  such  combinations  of  effort  the 
praise  should  go  to  all,  just  as  the  labor  does. 

There  need  be  no  controversy,  however, 
about  the  battle  of  St.  Mihiel.  This  was  an 
American  action.  It  was  under  the  command 
of  General  Pershing  himself,  and  his  forces 
were  made  up  almost  entirely  of  Americans. 
The  French  acted  in  an  advisory  capacity,  and 
we  were  dependent,  in  part,  upon  them  for 
certain  material.  General  Pershing  in  his  offi- 
cial report  says:  "The  French  were  generous 


ST.  MIHIEL  269 

in  giving  us  assistance  in  corps  and  army  artil- 
lery, with  its  personnel."  We  were  also  under 
obligation  to  the  French  for  tanks,  but  here 
they  were  not  able  to  assist  us  so  liberally,  be- 
cause they  had  barely  enough  tanks  for  their 
own  use.  One  of  the  surprising  features  of 
the  St.  Mihiel  victory  is  that  it  was  achieved 
with  comparatively  slight  tank  preparation. 

St.  Mihiel  represented  the  biggest  staff  prob- 
lem attempted  by  the  American  Army  up  to 
that  time.  It  was,  of  course,  a  battle  which 
dwarfed  any  previous  action  in  the  military 
history  of  America.  Compared  to  the  battle 
of  St.  Mihiel,  the  whole  Spanish-American  War 
was  a  mere  patrol  encounter,  and  Gettysburg 
itself  a  minor  engagement.  With  the  force  at 
his  command,  and  the  weapons,  General  Persh- 
ing  could  have  annihilated  the  army  of  either 
Grant  or  Lee  in  half  an* hour.  Some  idea  of  the 
magnitude  of  the  battle  may  be  gathered  from 
the  report  of  General  Pershing:  that  he  had  under 
his  command  approximately  600,000  troops,  or 
four  tunes  the  peace  standing  of  the  entire 
American  military  establishment  before  the  war. 

It  is  difficult  enough  to  move  an  army  of 


270  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

that  size,  with  its  supplies  and  its  guns,  under 
any  conditions,  but  the  plan  for  the  St.  Mihiel 
offensive  called  for  a  surprise  attack,  and  it 
was  necessary  to  make  all  the  troop  movements 
at  night.  In  spite  of  the  vaunted  efficiency  of 
the  German  intelligence,  there  seems  to  be  evi- 
dence that  their  high  command  had  little  ink- 
ling of  the  magnitude  of  the  blow  impending 
or  the  date  on  which  it  would  fall.  The  St. 
Mihiel  salient  had  been  so  long  a  fixture  in  the 
geography  of  the  battle-lines  that  no  change 
was  expected. 

In  preparation  for  the  offensive  the  First 
Army  was  organized  on  August  10,  under  the 
personal  command  of  General  Pershing.  Fol- 
lowing this  move  the  Americans  took  over  part 
of  the  line.  This  became  a  permanent  Ameri- 
can sector.  Pershing  took  command  of  the 
sector  on  August  30.  At  that  time  the  sector 
under  his  command  began  at  Port  sur  Seille, 
and  extended  through  a  point  opposite  St. 
Mihiel,  then  twisting  north  to  a  point  opposite 
Verdun.  The  preparations  for  the  offensive 
included,  in  addition  to  guns,  men,  and  tanks, 
the  greatest  concentration  which  the  American 


ST.  MffllEL  271 

Army  had  ever  known  in  transport,  ambulances, 
and  aircraft.  Most  of  the  planes  in  action  were 
of  French  make,  and  some  were  flown  by  the 
French,  but  there  were  a  few  of  our  manufac- 
ture, for  on  August  7  an  American  squadron, 
completely  equipped  by  American  production, 
made  its  appearance  at  the  front. 

The  preparations  for  the  offensive  were  mi- 
nute as  well  as  extensive.  It  is,  perhaps,  worth 
noting  as  a  sample  of  the  thoroughness  with 
which  the  American  Army  went  about  the  job 
that  no  less  than  100,000  maps  were  issued 
which  showed  the  character  of  the  terrain 
around  St.  Mihiel,  with  all  the  natural  and  arti- 
ficial defenses  carefully  noted,  and  some  esti- 
mate of  the  strength  in  which  the  enemy  was 
likely  to  be  found  at  each  point.  The  army 
had  6,000  telephone  instruments,  and  at  least 
5,000  miles  of  wire,  so  there  was  no  difficulty 
in  keeping  in  touch  with  what  the  men  were 
doing  at  every  point.  The  attack  began  at 
1  A.  M.  on  September  12.  The  American  artil- 
lery had  been  crowded  into  the  sector  to  such 
an  extent  that  the  German  artillery  was  com- 
pletely dominated.  The  bombardment  lasted 


272  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

for  four  hours,  and  then  the  troops  went  for- 
ward, preceded  by  a  few  tanks,  but  there  were 
points  where  infantry  went  forward  without 
the  aid  of  these  auxiliaries.  It  was  misty  when 
the  seven  divisions  in  the  front  line  sprang  out 
of  their  trenches,  and  this  helped  to  keep  losses 
down.  Indeed,  throughout  the  battle  the  re- 
sistance proved  much  less  determined  than  had 
been  anticipated. 

Although  the  bombardment  had  been  short, 
most  of  the  wire  had  been  cut.  There  remained 
a  few  jobs,  however,  for  the  wire-cutters,  and 
for  other  soldiers  armed  with  torpedoes.  With 
one  method  or  the  other  our  men  smashed  what 
was  left  of  the  wire  guarding  the  enemy  first- 
line  trenches.  And  then  the  waves  came  on 
and  over.  There  was  little  resistance  in  the 
first  line,  for  the  Germans  in  these  positions 
were  pretty  well  demoralized  by  the  terrific 
artillery  pounding  which  they  had  received 
and  the  sight  of  thousands  upon  thousands  of 
Americans  rushing  upon  them  from  out  of  the 
fog.  For  the  most  part  they  surrendered  with- 
out resistance.  As  the  advance  progressed  re- 
sistance became  stiffer  at  some  points,  but  the 


ST.  MIHIEL  273 

attackers  kept  pretty  generally  up  to  schedule, 
or  ahead  of  it.  Thiaucourt  was  taken  by  the 
First  Corps.  The  Fourth  Corps  fought  its  way 
through  Nonsard.  The  Second  Colonial  Corps 
was  not  asked  to  make  a  very  great  advance, 
but  it  had  the  most  difficult  terrain  over  which 
to  work.  It  had  won  all  its  objects  early  in 
the  day.  A  difficult  task  was  also  set  for  the 
Fifth  Corps,  which  took  three  ridges  and  then 
immediately  had  to  repulse  a  counter-attack. 
St.  Mihiel  fell  early  in  the  day.  And  in  an 
incredibly  short  period  a  salient  which  had 
been  in  the  enemy  hands  for  almost  four  years 
was  pinched  out  of  existence. 

Everybody  was  delighted  to  find  that  in  one 
respect  the  American  preparations  had  been 
too  extensive.  No  less  than  thirty -five  hospital- 
trains  had  been  assembled  back  of  the  attacking 
forces,  and  there  were  beds  for  16,000  men  in 
the  advanced  areas,  with  55,000  a  little  farther 
back.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  less  than  one-tenth 
of  these  facilities  proved  necessary,  for  the 
American  casualties  were  only  7,000,  and  many 
of  these  were  slight.  The  German  General 
Staff  always  maintained  that  it  had  anticipated 


274  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

the  attack  and  that  its  men  were  under  orders 
to  retire,  as  the  salient  was  of  no  strategic  im- 
portance. The  last  assertion  may  be  true,  but 
there  seems  to  be  little  to  support  the  rest,  for 
the  total  of  prisoners  was  16,000,  with  443  guns. 
The  quantity  of  material  captured  was  enor- 
mous. In  a  single  depot  there  were  found 
4,000  shells  for  77's  and  350,000  rounds  of 
rifle  cartridges.  Among  the  other'  assorted 
booty  were  200  machine-guns,  42  trench-mortars, 
30  box-cars,  4  locomotives,  30,000  hand-gre- 
nades, 13  trucks,  and  40  wagons.  The  number 
of  German  helmets  which  fell  to  the  doughboys 
was  naturally  countless. 

The  attack  was  so  completely  successful  and 
ran  so  closely  to  schedule  that  there  were  few 
surprises.  A  little  group  of  newspaper  men, 
however,  were  frank  to  admit  that  they  had 
encountered  one.  Following  closely  upon  the 
heels  of  the  attacking  troops,  they  came  to  a 
village  which  was  being  heavily  shelled  by  the 
Germans.  Accordingly,  the  newspaper  men 
took  refuge  in  a  dugout  until  such  time  as  the 
opportunity  for  observation  should  be  more 
favorable.  Coming  from  the  other  direction,  a 


ST.  MIHIEL  275 

group  of  German  prisoners  entered  the  same 
village.  They  had  surrendered  to  one  of  the 
waves  of  onrushing  Americans,  but  everybody 
was  too  busy  to  conduct  them  personally  to 
the  rear.  They  had  merely  been  instructed  to 
keep  marching  until  they  encountered  some 
American  officers  or  doughboys  who  were  not 
otherwise  engaged,  and  then  surrender  them- 
selves. When  the  shells  fell  fast  about  them 
the  Germans  darted  for  the  dugout  in  which 
the  newspaper  men  had  previously  taken  refuge. 
The  correspondents  were  astounded  and  dis- 
turbed when  sixteen  field-gray  soldiers  came 
tumbling  in  upon  them.  They  could  only 
imagine  that  at  some  point  the  Germans  had 
struck  back  and  that  the  counter-attack  had 
broken  through.  And  the  correspondents  ad- 
mit that  without  a  moment's  hesitation  they 
gave  one  look  at  the  Germans  and  then  raised 
their  weaponless  hands  and  cried  "Kamerad." 
The  perplexing  feature  of  the  situation  was  that 
the  Germans  did  exactly  the  same  thing,  and 
a  complete  deadlock  ensued  until  a  squad  of 
doughboys  happened  along  that  way  and  took 
the  Germans  in  charge. 


276  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

Both  sides  in  the  battle  were  willing  to  admit 
that  their  foemen  had  fought  with  courage. 
While  it  is  true  that  the  first  waves  of  the  Ameri- 
can Army  had  an  easy  time,  there  was  stiff  but 
ineffectual  resistance  by  German  machine-gun- 
ners later  in  the  day.  Many  of  these  men  served 
their  gurfs  without  offering  surrender,  and  had 
to  be  bombed  or  bayoneted.  In  a  document 
by  a  German  intelligence  officer,  which  fell  into 
American  hands  much  later  in  the  war,  a  very 
frank  tribute  was  paid  to  the  extraordinary 
courage  of  the  Americans.  The  German  officer 
said  that  they  seemed  to  be  absolutely  without 
fear  on  the  offensive,  and  must  be  reckoned  with 
as  shock  troops,  although  they  sometimes  fought 
greenly.  He  reported,  however,  that  American 
leadership  was  less  impressive,  and  stated  that 
the  American  Army  might  have  gone  much 
farther  if  it  had  been  more  quick  to  take  ad- 
vantage of  its  early  success.  But  this  would 
seem  to  be  a  mere  effort  to  whistle  up  courage 
in  the  German  General  Staff,  for  a  consideration 
of  the  territory  which  fell  into  American  hands 
as  a  result  of  the  attack  shows  some  measure 
of  its  success.  This  comprised  152  square  miles 


ST.  MIHIEL  277 

which  was  recovered  from  the  Germans.  And  in 
this  liberated  district  were  72  villages. 

And  yet  the  importance  of  the  battle  can 
hardly  be  measured  in  territory  regained,  and 
much  less  in  booty  or  in  guns.  "This  signal 
success  of  the  American  Army  in  its  first  offen- 
sive was  of  prime  importance,"  wrote  General 
Pershing  in  his  report  to  Secretary  Baker.  "  The 
Allies  found  that  they  had  a  formidable  army  to 
aid  them,  and  the  enemy  learned  finally  that  he 
had  one  to  reckon  with."  Moreover,  the  pinch- 
ing out  of  the  St.  Mihiel  salient  put  the  American 
Army  in  a  position  to  threaten  Metz.  This 
threat  was  one  of  the  factors  which  caused  the 
enemy  to  realize  a  few  months  later  that  further 
resistance  could  not  hope  to  check  the  allied 
armies  for  any  considerable  time. 

The  divisions  employed  at  St.  Mihiel  com- 
prised many  of  our  best  units.  Among  the  di- 
visions engaged  were  the  Eighty-second,  the 
Ninetieth,  the  Fifth,  and  the  Second,  which 
made  up  the  First  Corps,  under  Major-Gen- 
eral  Hunter  Liggett.  In  the  Third  Corps  were 
the  Eighty-ninth,  the  Forty-second,  and  the 
First  Divisions,  under  Major-General  Joseph 


278  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

T.  Dickman.  The  Fifth  Corps,  under  Major- 
General  George  H.  Cameron,  had  the  Twenty- 
sixth  Division  and  a  French  division.  In  reserve 
were  the  Seventy-eighth,  Third,  Thirty-fifth, 
and  Ninety-first  Divisions.  The  Eighteenth  and 
Thirty-third  were  also  available. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 
MEUSE-ARGONNE  BEGINS 

T  T  AVING  successfully  accomplished  one  piece 
•*•  •*•  of  work,  the  American  Army  received  as 
its  reward  another  piece  of  work.  The  re- 
ward consisted  in  the  fact  that  the  second 
task  assigned  to  Pershing's  men  was,  per- 
haps, the  hardest  possible  at  any  point  in  the 
line.  Since  1915  the  Argonne  Forest  had  been 
a  rest  area  for  the  German  Army.  Everything 
had  been  done  to  make  the  position  impregnable, 
and  so  it  was  in  theory.  But  the  Americans 
broke  that  theory  and  took  the  forest.  So  con- 
fident were  the  Germans  of  their  tenancy  that 
they  had  built  all  sorts  of  palatial  underground 
dwellings.  Barring  light,  there  was  no  modern 
convenience  which  these  dugouts  (although  that 
is  no  fit  name)  did  not  possess.  Some  had  run- 
ning water.  All  the  most  pretentious  ones  had 
feather-beds,  and  the  big  underground  rooms 
were  gay  with  pictures  and  furniture  stolen 
from  the  French.  The  defenses  of  the  positions 

279 


280  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

in  the  forest  included  miles  and  miles  of  barbed 
wire,  sometimes  hidden  in  the  underbrush,  and 
again  carried  around  tree-trunks  higher  than  a 
man  could  reach.  There  were  high  concrete 
walls  to  stop  the  progress  of  tanks  and  deep- 
pit  traps  into  which  they  might  fall.  And 
machine  guns  were  everywhere. 

The  Meuse-Argonne  campaign,  which  falls 
into  three  phases,  reads  far  differently  than  the 
taking  of  St.  Mihiel.  Except  in  its  early  stages 
this  was  no  grand  running,  flawless  offensive 
without  a  hitch  worth  mentioning.  In  the  na- 
ture of  things  it  could  not  be  so.  The  Argonne 
was  less  susceptible  to  the  laws  of  military 
strategy.  Warfare  in  these  woods  became  a 
struggle  between  small  detached  units.  Much 
of  the  fighting  took  place  in  the  dark  and  prac- 
tically all  of  it  in  the  rain.  The  American  vic- 
tory was  a  triumph  of  the  bomb  and  the  rifle, 
and  perhaps  the  wire-cutter  should  be  added, 
over  the  machine-gun.  In  many  encounters  the 
opposing  units  fired  at  each  other  from  short 
ranges,  and  directed  their  fire  solely  by  the 
flashes  of  the  other  fellow's  machine-gun.  War 
in  the  Argonne  Forest  was  a  cat-and-dog  fight, 


MEUSE-ARGONNE  BEGINS  281 

and  Germany  was  destined  to  play  the  cat's 
usual  role,  though  she  clawed  her  hardest. 

And  yet  though  many  of  the  phases  of  the 
Meuse-Argonne  were  primitive  and  elemental 
in  their  nature,  sound  strategy  lay  behind  the 
campaign.  General  Pershing  in  his  vivid  re- 
port explains  not  only  the  necessity  for  the 
campaign  but  the  objects  which  he  sought  and 
gained.  St.  Mihiel  shook  the  confidence  of  the 
Germans,  but  neither  that  success  nor  those 
scored  by  other  allied  armies  was  sufficient  to 
batter  the  Germans  into  defeat. 

"The  German  Army,"  wrote  General  Persh- 
ing, "had  as  yet  shown  no  demoralization, 
and  while  the  mass  of  its  troops  had  suffered  in 
morale,  its  first-class  divisions,  and  notably  its 
machine-gun  defense,  were  exhibiting  remarka- 
ble tactical  efficiency  as  well  as  courage.  The 
German  General  Staff  was  fully  aware  of  the 
consequences  of  a  success  on  the  Meuse-Argonne 
line.  Certain  that  he  would  do  everything  in 
his  power  to  oppose  us,  the  action  was  planned 
with  as  much  secrecy  as  possible,  and  was  un- 
dertaken with  the  determination  to  use  all  our 
divisions  in  forcing  decision.  We  expected  to 


282  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

draw  the  best  German  divisions  to  our  front 
and  to  consume  them  while  the  enemy  was  held 
under  grave  apprehension  lest  our  attack  should 
break  his  line,  which  it  was  our  firm  purpose 
to  do." 

"Our  right  flank,"  wrote  General  Pershing  in 
describing  his  position  at  the  beginning  of  the 
battle,  "was  protected  by  the  Meuse,  while  our 
left  embraced  the  Argonne  Forest,  whose  ravines, 
hills,  and  elaborate  defense  screened  by  dense 
thickets,  had  been  generally  considered  impreg- 
nable. Our  order  of  battle  from  right  to  left 
was :  the  Third  Corps  from  the  Meuse  to  Malan- 
court,  with  the  Thirty-third,  Eightieth,  and 
Fourth  Divisions  in  line,  and  the  Third  Division 
as  corps  reserve;  the  Fifth  Corps  from  Malan- 
court  to  Vauqois,  with  Seventy-ninth,  Eighty- 
seventh,  and  Ninety-first  Divisions  in  line,  and 
the  Thirty -second  in  corps  reserve;  and  the 
First  Corps,  from  Vauquois  to  Vienne  Le  Cha- 
teau, with  Thirty-fifth,  Twenty-eighth,  and 
Seventy-seventh  Divisions  in  line,  and  the 
Ninety-second  in  corps  reserve.  The  army  re- 
serve consisted  of  the  First,  Twenty-ninth,  and 
Eighty -second  Divisions." 


MEUSE-ARGONNE  BEGINS  283 

The  American  Army  had  no  extended  vaca- 
tion after  the  victory  at  St.  Mihiel.  That  ac- 
tion had  hardly  been  completed  when  some  of 
the  artillery  left  its  positions  and  departed  for 
the  Meuse-Argonne  front.  St.  Mihiel  began 
on  September  12.  Just  two  weeks  later  the 
first  attack  in  the  long-protracted  Meuse-Ar- 
gonne campaign  began.  The  first  portion  of 
this  offensive  was  by  far  the  easiest.  It  was 
difficult,  to  be  sure,  but  the  terrific  hardships 
were  still  to  come.  One  factor  which  miti- 
gated the  task  of  the  troops  engaged  in  the  first 
attack  was  that  again  the  Germans  seemed  to 
have  been  taken  by  surprise.  The  Americans 
moved  very  fast  over  difficult  terrain.  This 
was  country  which  had  already  been  sorely  dis- 
puted, and  shell-holes  were  everywhere.  In  the 
places  where  there  were  no  shell-holes  there  was 
barbed  wire. 

As  the  attack  progressed  the  German  resist- 
ance increased.  Artillery  was  moved  forward 
and  machine-guns  seemed  to  spring  up  over- 
night in  that  much  ploughed  and  harrowed 
land.  Yet  after  three  days'  fighting  the  Ameri- 
cans had  penetrated  a  distance  of  from  three  to 


284  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

seven  miles  into  the  enemy's  positions,  in  spite 
of  the  large  numbers  of  reserves  which  were 
thrown  in  to  check  them.  Even  a  German 
communique  writer  would  hardly  have  the  face 
to  maintain  that  the  territory  captured  by  the 
Americans  was  of  no  strategic  importance. 
Every  mile  that  Pershing's  men  went  forward 
brought  them  that  much  nearer  to  Sedan,  and 
on  Sedan  rested  the  whole  fate  of  the  German 
lines  in  France.  But  Sedan  was  still  many  a 
weary  mile  away.  The  territorial  gains  in  the 
onward  rush  of  the  first  three  days  included  the 
villages  of  Montfaucon,  Exermont,  Gercourt, 
Cuisy,  Septsarges,  Malancourt,  Ivoiry  (known 
to  the  doughboys,  of  course,  as  Solid  Ivory), 
Epinonville,  Charpentry,  and  Very.  Ten  thou- 
sand prisoners  were  taken. 

In  spite  of  this  great  success  it  was  not  pos- 
sible for  the  Americans  to  drive  straight  for- 
ward. The  country  over  which  the  action  was 
fought  was  so  bad  that  several  days  were  needed 
to  build  new  roads  up  to  the  positions  which 
had  been  won.  Even  with  the  best  efforts  in 
the  world,  the  moving  of  supplies  was  a  pro- 
digious job.  The  mud  was  almost  as  great  a 


MEUSE-ARGONNE  BEGINS  285 

foe  as  the  German  guns.  In  the  necessary  lull 
the  Germans,  of  course,  rushed  new  troops  into 
the  sector  to  combat  the  American  advance. 
Naturally,  the  lull  was  not  complete.  There 
was  constant  raiding  by  Americans  to  identify 
units  opposed  to  them,  and  here  and  there  in 
small  local  attacks  strategic  points  were  taken 
which  would  be  of  advantage  in  the  big  push 
to  come.  From  prisoners  the  Americans  learned 
that  among  the  divisions  opposite  them  were 
many  of  the  crack  units  of  the  German  Army. 
America  was  also  represented  by  its  best  or- 
ganizations, but  under  the  constant  losses  in- 
curred in  attacks  against  strongly  intrenched 
positions  units  dwindled,  and  replacements  were 
poured  in.  Under  the  circumstances  it  was 
necessary  to  send  many  soldiers  to  the  front 
who  had  been  in  training  but  a  short  while. 
These  were  mixed  in,  however,  with  veterans, 
and  it  should  be  said  to  the  credit  of  these  green 
men  that  in  practically  every  case  they  upheld 
the  reputation  of  the  units  to  which  they  were 
sent.  They  were  quick  to  feel  themselves  as 
sharers  in  the  reputation  of  their  new-found 
organizations. 


286  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

There  was  no  element  of  surprise  to  help  the 
American  Army  when  the  attack  began  again 
in  full  force  on  October  4.  Where  progress  be- 
fore had  been  measured  in  miles,  now  it  was 
counted  in  yards.  Possibly  it  was  even  a  matter 
of  feet  at  some  points  in  the  line.  Yet  always 
the  movement  was  forward.  Weight  of  num- 
bers and  dogged  courage  proved  that  machine- 
gun  nests  of  the  strongest  sort  were  vulnerable. 
The  Germans  counter-attacked  constantly,  but 
such  tactics  were  actually  welcomed  by  the 
Americans  as  they  brought  the  Germans  into 
the  open  and  gave  our  riflemen  and  machine- 
gunners  something  at  which  to  shoot.  The 
difficulties  with  which  the  Americans  had  to 
contend  may  be  judged  by  the  fact  that,  ac- 
cording to  an  official  report,  the  Germans  had 
machine-guns  at  intervals  of  every  yard  all 
along  their  line. 

The  Argonne  fighting  produced  many  actions 
more  important  than  the  rescue  of  the  Lost 
Battalion,  but  hardly  any  as  dramatic.  The 
incident  could  have  happened  only  in  the  Ar^ 
gonne,  where  communication  with  co-operating 
units  was  always  difficult,  and  sometimes  im- 


MEUSE-ARGONNE  BEGINS  287 

possible.  Major  Whittlesey's  battalion,  in  mak- 
ing an  attack  through  the  forest,  gained 
their  objectives,  only  to  find  that  they  were  out 
of  touch  with  the  American  and  French  units 
with  which  they  were  co-operating.  It  is  not 
true,  as  sometimes  reported,  that  Whittlesey 
pushed  ahead  beyond  the  objectives  which  had 
been  set  for  him.  Nevertheless,  he  was  so  far 
away  from  help  as  to  make  his  chances  of  res- 
cue small.  German  machine-guns  were  behind 
him.  His  men  were  raked  by  fire  from  all  sides. 
Yet  their  position  was  a  strong  one  and  they 
hung  on.  Soon  their  rations  were  gone.  For 
more  than  twenty -four  hours  even  their  position 
was  unknown  to  the  American  Army.  Eventu- 
ally they  were  located  by  aeroplanes  and  an  at- 
tempt was  made  to  supply  them  with  food  and 
ammunition.  Even  yet  rescue  seemed  a  long 
chance.  The  Germans  thought  the  battalion 
was  at  their  mercy  and  sent  a  messenger  asking 
Whittlesey  to  surrender.  He  refused,  and  the 
"Go  to  Hell"  which  has  been  put  into  his 
mouth  as  a  fitting  expression  for  the  occasion 
will  probably  go  down  in  American  history  in 
spite  of  the  fact  that  Whittlesey  has  done  his 


288 

best  to  convince  people  that  he  never  said  it. 
Several  attacks  were  made  in  an  effort  to  res- 
cue the  Americans  but  without  success  until  a 
force  under  Lieutenant-Colonel  Gene  Houghton 
broke  through  and  brought  the  exhausted  men 
back  to  safety. 

The  last  strongly  f ortified  line  of  the  Germans 
was  the  Kriemhilde,  and  the  second  phase  of 
the  Meuse-Argonne  offensive  had  not  been  in 
progress  long  before  our  men  were  astride  the 
line  at  many  points.  But  there  was  still  much 
desperate  fighting  to  do  before  the  Germans 
were  completely  driven  from  their  scientifically 
perfect  positions.  The  honor  of  actually  breach- 
ing the  line  fell  to  the  Fifth  Corps,  which  entered 
the  line  on  October  14  and  drove  the  Germans 
out  after  some  fearful  close  fighting.  In  the 
meantime  the  continual  pressure  of  the  Ameri- 
can forces  was  beginning  to  tell.  Chatel- 
Chehery  fell  to  the  First  Corps  on  October  7. 
On  the  9th  the  Fifth  Corps  took  Fleville,  and 
the  Third  Corps,  after  some  desperate  fighting, 
worked  its  way  through  Brieulles  and  Cunel. 
By  October  10  the  Argonne  Forest  was  prac- 
tically clear  of  the  enemy. 


MEUSE-ARGONNE  BEGINS  289 

One  of  the  important  factors  in  the  Argonne 
campaign  was  aviation.  Aerial  activity  was 
great  on  both  sides,  since  in  no  other  campaign 
was  observation  so  difficult  or  so  important. 
Both  sides  did  a  great  deal  of  day  bombing,  and 
during  one  such  American  foray  the  greatest 
battle  of  the  air  took  place.  The  American  ex- 
pedition consisted  of  thirty -four  machines.  It 
was  attacked  by  thirty-six  Fokkers.  Although 
the  German  machines  are  faster,  the  American 
squadron  managed  to  hold  its  formation.  Seven 
Fokker  machines  were  brought  down  in  the 
battle  and  five  American. 

All  in  all,  the  Meuse-Argonne  campaign  was 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  in  the  history  of  the 
war.  Its  second  phase  in  particular  is  sure  to 
be  a  bone  of  contention  for  military  experts. 
General  Pershing  himself  declared  very  frankly 
in  his  report  to  Secretary  Baker  that  he  had 
purposely  abandoned  traditional  military  tac- 
tics in  the  campaign.  "The  enemy,"  he  wrote, 
"had  taken  every  advantage  of  the  terrain, 
which  especially  favored  the  defense,  by  a  prodi- 
gal use  of  machine-guns  manned  by  highly 
trained  veterans,  and  by  using  his  artillery  at 


290  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

short  ranges.  In  the  face  of  such  strong  fron- 
tal positions  we  should  have  been  unable  to 
accomplish  any  progress  according  to  previously 
accepted  standards,  but  I  had  every  confidence 
in  our  aggressive  tactics  and  the  courage  of  our 
troops." 

Such  strategists  as  oppose  the  theory  of  the 
Meuse-Argonne  campaign  will  undoubtedly  as- 
sert that  American  losses  were  high.  In  rebuttal 
defenders  of  the  plan  of  the  campaign  will  say 
that  the  losses  were  very  light  considering  the 
nature  of  the  fighting,  and  that  the  campaign 
shortened  the  duration  of  the  war  appreciably 
by  putting  the  Germans  into  a  position  where 
they  were  compelled  either  to  surrender  or  be 
overwhelmed.  But  whatever  decision  may  be 
reached  by  the  experts,  there  is  no  necessity  of 
calling  for  testimony  as  to  the  part  the  American 
soldier  played  in  this  campaign.  It  seems  fair 
to  say  that  he  has  never  shown  more  dogged 
courage  or  resourcefulness  than  in  the  fighting 
in  the  forest. 


CHAPTER  XXV 
CEASE  FIRING 

T3EFORE  taking  up  the  final  phases  of  the 
••-'  Meuse-Argonne  campaign,  and  the  final 
phases  of  the  war,  it  is  fitting  to  follow  the  for- 
tunes of  some  divisions  which  saw  action  in 
other  parts  of  the  front.  The  Second  Corps,  for 
example,  remained  with  the  British  and  saw 
desperately  hard  service  and  won  corresponding 
fame.  This  corps  was  composed  of  the  Twenty- 
seventh  and  Thirtieth  Divisions,  and  in  con- 
junction with  the  Australian  Corps  it  partici- 
pated in  the  attack  which  broke  the  Hinden- 
burg  line  near  St.  Quentin.  The  Twenty- 
seventh  Division  had  the  honor  of  being  the 
first  unit  actually  to  breach  the  famous  defen- 
sive system  of  the  Germans. 

The  attack  began  on  September  29  and 
continued  through  October  1.  Both  divisions 
were  compelled  to  advance  over  difficult  ter- 
rain against  strongly  fortified  positions.  They 
were  raked  from  both  sides  by  machine-gun 

291 


292  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

fire  as  they  cut  their  way  through  innumerable 
lines  of  barbed  wire.  But  in  spite  of  the  de- 
termined resistance  of  the  Germans,  they  broke 
the  line.  The  divisions  also  saw  hard  service 
from  October  6  to  October  19.  In  these  opera- 
tions the  Second  Corps  was  credited  with  the 
capture  of  more  than  6,000  prisoners,  and  ad- 
vanced into  enemy  territory  for  a  distance  of 
thirteen  miles.  Marshal  Haig  expressed  his  ad- 
miration of  the  conduct  and  achievements  of 
both  the  American  divisions  which  served  with 
his  forces. 

American  divisions  also  played  an  important 
role  in  conjunction  with  the  French  when  they 
assisted  in  an  attack  against  the  Germans  just 
outside  of  Rheims.  This  operation  continued 
from  October  2  to  October  9  and  was  marked 
by  severe  and  bitter  fighting.  The  American 
forces  engaged  were  the  Second  and  Thirty- 
sixth  Divisions.  Perhaps  the  most  noteworthy 
achievement  in  the  campaign  was  the  capture 
of  Blanc  Mont  by  the  Second  Division.  Blanc 
Mont  is  a  wooded  hill,  and  was  very  strongly 
held  by  the  Germans.  The  Americans  were  re- 
pulsed in  their  first  assault,  but  came  back  and 


CEASE  FIRING  293 

tried  again.  This  time  they  swept  the  German 
defenders  before  them.  The  assault  by  no 
means  completed  their  labors,  for  after  the 
capture  of  the  hill  the  division  was  called  upon 
to  repulse  strong  counter-attacks  in  front  of  the 
village  of  St.  Etienne.  Not  content  with  driving 
the  Germans  back,  the  Second  went  on  and  took 
the  town.  The  Germans  were  forced  to  abandon 
positions  they  had  held  ever  since  the  autumn 
of  1914. 

By  this  time  the  Second  Division  had  earned 
a  rest,  and  it  was  relieved  by  the  Thirty-sixth. 
The  relieving  troops  were  inexperienced.  They 
had  never  been  under  fire,  and  the  Germans 
subjected  them  to  a  severe  artillery  strafing,  but 
did  not  shake  their  confidence.  The  division 
performed  useful  work  in  pursuing  the  Germans 
in  their  retirement  behind  the  Aisne. 

Other  divisions  saw  service  with  the  French 
in  Belgium.  After  the  ending  of  the  second 
phase  of  the  Meuse-Argonne  campaign,  the 
Thirty-seventh  and  Ninety-first  Divisions  were 
withdrawn  and  sent  to  join  the  French  near 
Ypres.  They  took  part  in  a  heavy  attack  on 
October  31.  The  Thirty-seventh  inflicted  a 


294  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

severe  defeat  upon  opposing  troops  at  the 
Escaut  River  on  November  3,  and  the  Ninety- 
first  won  much  praise  from  the  French  for  a 
flanking  movement  which  resulted  in  the  cap- 
ture of  the  Spitaals  Bosschen  Wood. 

Although  the  German  Army  had  begun  to 
disintegrate  by  November  1,  the  Americans  saw 
some  hard  fighting  after  that  date.  The  task 
set  for  Pershing's  men  was  in  theory  almost  as 
difficult  as  clearing  the  Argonne  Forest.  The 
offensive  was  aimed  at  the  Longuyon-Sedan- 
Mezieres  railway,  which  was  one  of  the  most 
important  lines  of  communication  of  the  Ger- 
man Army.  Germany  was  aware  of  the  gravity 
of  this  threat  and  used  her  very  best  troops 
in  an  effort  to  stop  the  Americans.  For  a  time 
the  Germans  fought  steadily,  but  their  morale 
was  waning  at  the  end.  The  Americans  found 
on  several  occasions  that  their  second-day  gains 
were  greater  than  those  of  the  first  day,  which 
was  formerly  an  unheard  of  thing  on  the  western 
front. 

In  the  final  days  of  the  war  the  Americans 
had  to  go  their  fastest  in  an  effort  to  reach 
Sedan  before  "the  armistice  went  into  effect. 


CEASE  FIRING  295 

During  one  phase  of  the  battle  doughboys 
mounted  on  auto-trucks  went  forward  in  a  vain 
effort  to  establish  contact  with  the  enemy. 
The  roads  were  so  bad,  however,  that  the  Ameri- 
cans were  unable  to  catch  up  with  the  fleeing 
Germans. 

The  third  phase  of  the  Meuse-Argonrie  cam- 
paign found  the  Americans  absolutely  confident 
of  success.  They  knew  their  superiority  over 
the  Germans,  and  the  American  Army  was  con- 
stantly growing  stronger  while  the  Germans 
grew  weaker.  Pershing  was  able  to  send  well- 
rested  divisions  into  the  battle.  The  final  ad- 
vance began  on  November  1.  American  artil- 
lery was  stronger  than  ever  in  numbers  and 
much  more  experienced.  Never  before  had  our 
army  seen  such  a  barrage,  and  the  German  in- 
fantry broke  before  the  advance  of  the  dough- 
boys. The  German  heart  to  fight  had  begun 
to  develop  murmurs,  although  there  were  some 
units  among  the  enemy  forces  which  fought 
with  great  gallantry  until  the  very  end.  Ain- 
creville,  Doulcon,  and  Andevsnne  fell  in  the 
first  day  of  the  attack.  Landres  et  St.  Georges 
was  next  to  go,  as  the  Fifth  Corps,  in  an  im- 


296  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

petuous  attack,  swept  up  to  Bayonville.  On 
November  2,  which  was  the  second  day  of  the 
attack,  the  First  Corps  was  called  in  to  give 
added  pressure.  By  this  time  the  German  re- 
sistance was  pretty  well  broken.  It  was  now 
that  the  motor-truck  offensive  began.  Behind 
the  trucks  the  field-guns  rattled  along  as  the 
artillerymen  spurred  on  their  horses  in  a  vain 
effort  to  catch  up  with  something  at  which  they 
could  shoot.  At  the  end  of  the  third  day  of 
the  attack  the  American  Army  had  penetrated 
the  German  line  to  a  depth  of  twelve  miles. 
A  slight  pause  was  then  necessary  in  order  that 
the  big  guns  might  come  up,  but  on  November 
5  the  Third  Corps  crossed  the  Meuse.  They 
met  a  sporadic  resistance  from  German  machine- 
gunners  but  swept  them  up  with  small  losses. 
By  the  7th  of  November  the  chief  objective  of 
the  offensive  thrust  was  obtained.  On  that  day 
American  troops,  among  them  the  Rainbow 
Division,  reached  Sedan.  Pershing's  army  had 
cut  the  enemy's  line  of  communication.  Noth- 
ing but  surrender  or  complete  defeat  was  left 
to  him. 

In  estimating  the  extent  of  the  American  vic- 
tory it  is  interesting  to  note  that  General  Persh- 


CEASE  FIRING  297 

ing  reported  that  forty  enemy  divisions  par- 
ticipated in  the  Meuse-Argonne  battle.  Our 
army  took  26,059  prisoners  and  captured  468 
guns.  Colonel  Frederick  Palmer  estimates  that 
650,000  American  soldiers  were  engaged  in  the 
battle.  This  is  a  greater  number  than  were  en- 
gaged at  St.  Mihiel,  and  it  was,  of  course,  a 
new  mark  in  the  records  of  the  American  Army. 
Colonel  Palmer  has  stated  his  opinion  that 
Meuse-Argonne  was  one  of  the  four  decisive 
battles  of  the  war.  The  other  three  which  he 
names  are  the  first  battle  of  the  Marne,  the  first 
battle  of  Ypres,  and  Verdun. 

Curiously  enough,  Chateau-Thierry  looms 
larger  in  the  mind  of  the  average  American  than 
Meuse-Argonne,  although  the  number  of  Ameri- 
cans engaged  in  the  former  battle  was  not  half 
as  great  as  those  who  battered  their  way  through 
the  forest.  Of  course  the  importance  of  a  bat- 
tle is  not  to  be  judged  solely  by  the  number  of 
men  engaged,  but  there  seems  to  be  no  good  rea- 
son for  assigning  a  strategic  importance  to  Cha- 
teau-Thierry which  is  denied  to  Meuse-Argonne. 
Most  of  the  military  critics  are  of  the  opinion 
that  the  wide-spread  belief  that  the  Americans 
saved  Paris  at  the  battle  of  Chateau-Thierry  is 


298  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

not  literally  true.  The  American  victory  was 
a  factor,  to  be  sure.  It  was  even  an  important 
factor.  Perhaps,  from  the  point  of  view  of 
morale,  it  was  vital,  but  judged  by  strict  mili- 
tary standards  there  is  no  support  for  the  fre- 
quent assertion  that  only  a  few  marines  stood 
between  Paris  and  the  triumphant  entry  of  the 
German  Army.  Meuse-Argonne,  on  the  other 
hand,  was  not  only  a  campaign  solely  under 
American  control  but  a  large-scale  battle  which 
probably  shortened  the  war  by  many  months. 
This  victory  was  America's  chief  contribution 
in  the  field  to  the  cause  of  the  Allies.  It  is  on 
Meuse-Argonne  that  our  military  prestige  will 
rest.  The  divisions  engaged  were  the  First, 
Second,  Third,  Fourth,  Fifth,  Twenty-sixth, 
Twenty-eighth,  Twenty-ninth,  Thirty-second, 
Thirty-third,  Thirty-fifth,  Thirty-seventh,  Forty- 
second,  Seventy-seventh,  Seventy-eighth,  Sev- 
enty-ninth, Eightieth,  Eighty-second,  Eighty- 
ninth,  Ninetieth,  and  Ninety-first.  The  First, 
Fifth,  Twenty-sixth,  Forty-second,  Seventy- 
seventh,  Eightieth,  Eighty-ninth,  and  Ninetieth 
were  particularly  honored  by  being  put  in  the 
line  twice  during  the  campaign. 

Though  the  armistice  was  now  close  at  hand 


CEASE  FIRING  299 

the  war  had  not  ended.  The  policy  of  allied 
leadership  was  to  fight  until  the  last  minute 
lest  there  should  be  some  hitch.  The  American 
plans  called  for  an  advance  toward  Longwy  by 
the  First  Army  in  co-operation  with  the  Second 
Army,  which  was  to  threaten  the  Briey  iron- 
fields.  If  the  war  had  kept  up,  this  would  have 
been  followed  by  an  offensive  in  the  direction 
of  Chateau-Salins,  with  the  ultimate  object  of 
cutting  off  Metz.  The  attack  of  the  Second 
Army  was  actually  in  progress  when  the  time 
came  set  in  the  armistice  for  the  cessation  of 
hostilities.  At  eleven  o'clock  the  hostilities 
ceased  suddenly,  although  just  before  that  the 
Second  Army  was  advancing  against  heavy  and 
determined  machine-gun  fire,  with  both  sides 
apparently  unwilling  to  believe  that  the  war 
was  almost  over.  At  other  points  in  the  line 
where  no  offensive  was  set  for  the  last  day,  the 
^artillerymen  had  the  final  word  to  say.  Most 
of  the  American  guns  fired  at  the  foe  just  before 
eleven  o'clock,  and  in  many  batteries  the  gun- 
ners joined  hands  to  pull  the  lanyards  so  that 
all  might  have  a  share  in  the  final  defiance  to 
Germany. 

When  the  war  ended,  the  American  position 


300  OUR  ARMY  AT  THE  FRONT 

ran  from  Port-sur-Seille  across  the  Moselle  to 
Vandieres,  through  the  Woevre  to  Bezonvaux, 
thence  to  the  Meuse  at  Mouzay,  and  ending  at 
Sedan.  There  were  abroad  or  in  transit  2,053,- 
347  American  soldiers,  less  the  losses,  and  of 
these  there  were  1,338,169  combatant  troops  in 
France.  The  American  Army  captured  about 
44,000  prisoners  and  1,400  guns.  The  figures 
on  our  losses  are  not  yet  entirely  checked  up 
at  the  time  of  this  writing,  but  they  were  ap- 
proximately 300,000  in  killed,  died  of  disease, 
wounded,  and  missing. 

When  he  wrote  his  report  to  Secretary  Baker, 
General  Pershing  reserved  his  final  paragraph 
for  a  tribute  to  his  men,  and  in  it  he  said: 

"Finally,  I  pay  the  supreme  tribute  to  our 
officers  and  soldiers  of  the  line.  When  I  think 
of  their  heroism,  their  patience  under  hardships, 
their  unflinching  spirit  of  offensive  action,  I 
am  filled  with  emotion  which  I  am  unable  to 
express.  Their  deeds  are  immortal,  and  they 
have  earned  the  eternal  gratitude  of  our  coun- 
try." 


GENERAL  PERSHING'S  REPORT 


GENERAL  PERSHING'S  REPORT 

BATTLES    FOUGHT    BY   AMERICAN    ARMIES    IN    FRANCE 
FROM  THEIR  ORGANIZATION  TO  THE  FALL  OF  SEDAN 

[CABLED  BY  GENERAL  PERSHING  TO  MR.  BAKER,  SECRETARY 
OF  WAR,  AND  MADE  PUBLIC  WITH  HIS  ANNUAL  REPORT, 

DEC.  5,  1918] 

November  20,  1918. 

My  dear  Mr.  Secretary:  In  response  to  your  request, 
I  have  the  honor  to  submit  this  brief  summary  ojf  the 
organization  and  operation  of  the  American  Expedi- 
tionary Force  from  May  26,  1917,  until  the  signing  of  the 
armistice  Nov.  11,  1918.  Pursuant  to  your  instructions, 
immediately  upon  receiving  my  orders  I  selected  a  small 
staff  and  proceeded  k>  Europe  in  order  to  become  familiar 
with  conditions  at  the  earliest  possible  moment. 

The  warmth  of  our  reception  in  England  and  France 
was  only  equaled  by  the  readiness  of  the  Commanders  in 
Chief  of  the  veteran  armies  of  the  Allies,  and  their  staffs, 
to  place  their  experience  at  our  disposal.  In  consulta- 
tion with  them  the  most  effective  means  of  oo-toperation 
of  effort  was  considered.  With  the  French  and  British 
Armies  at  their  maximum  strength,  and  when  all  efforts 
to  dispossess  the  enemy  from  his  firmly  intrenched  posi- 
tions in  Belgium  and  France  had  failed,  it  was  necessary 
to  plan  for  an  American  force  adequate  to  turn  the  scale 
in  favor  of  the  Allies  Taking  account  of  the  strength  of 

303 


304         GENERAL  PERSHING'S  REPORT 

the  Central  Powers  at  that  time,  the  immensity  of  the 
problem  which  confronted  us  could  hardly  be  overesti- 
mated. The  first  requisite  being  an  organization  that 
could  give  intelligent  direction  to  effort,  the  formation 
of  a  General  Staff  occupied  my  early  attention. 

A  well-organized  General  Staff,  through  which  the 
Commander  exercises  his  functions,  is  essential  to  a  suc- 
cessful modern  army.  However  capable  our  division,  our 
battalion,  and  our  <joiripanies  as  such,  success  would  be 
impossible  without  thoroughly  co-ordinated  endeavor. 
A  General  Staff  broadly  organized  and  trained  for  war 
had  not  hitherto  existed  in  our  army.  Under  the  Com- 
mander in  Chief,  this  staff  must  carry  out  the  policy  and 
direct  the  details  of  administration,  supply,  preparation, 
and  operations  of  the  army  as  a  whole,  with  all  special 
branches  and  bureaus  subject  to  its  control.  As  models 
to  aid  us  we  had  the  veteran  French  General  Staff  and  the 
experience  of  the  British,  who  had  similarly  formed  an 
organization  to  meet  the  demands  of  a  great  army.  By 
selecting  from  each  the  features  best  adapted  to  our  basic 
organization,  and  fortified  by  our  own  early  experience 
in  the  war,  the  development  of  our  great  General  Staff 
system  was  completed. 

The  General  Staff  is  naturally  divided  into  five  groups, 
each  with  its  cjbief,  who  is  an  assistant  to  the  Chief  of  the 
General  Staff.  G.  1  is  in  charge  of  organization  and 
equipment  of  troops,  replacements,  tonnage,  priority  of 
overseas  shipment,  the  auxiliary  welfare  association,  and 
cognate  subjects;  G.  2  has  censorship,  enemy  intelligence, 
gathering  and  disseminating  information,  preparation  of 
maps,  and  all  similar  subjects;  G.  3  is  charged  with  all 
strategic  studies  and  plans,  movement  of  troops,  and  the 
supervision  of  combat  operations;  G.  4  co-ordinates  im- 


GENERAL  PERSHING'S  REPORT         305 

portant  questions  of  supply,  construction,  transport  ar- 
rangements for  combat,  and  of  the  operations  of  the  ser- 
vice of  supply,  and  of  hospitalization  and  the  evacuation 
of  the  sick  and  wounded;  G.  5  supervises  the  various 
schools  and  has  general  direction  and  co-ordination  of  edu- 
cation and  training. 

The  first  Chief  of  Staff  was  Colonel  (now  Major  Gen.) 
James  G.  Harbord,  who  was  succeeded  in  March,  1918, 
by  Major  Gen.  James  W.  McAndrew.  To  these  officers, 
to  the  Deputy  Chief  of  Staff,  and  to  the  Assistant  Chiefs 
of  Staff,  who,  as  heads  of  sections,  aided  them,  great  credit 
is  due  for  the  results  obtained,  not  only  in  perfecting  the 
General  Staff  organization,  but  in  applying  correct  prin- 
ciples to  the  multiplicity  of  problems  that  have  arisen. 

ORGANIZATION  AND  TRAINING 

After  a  thorough  consideration  of  allied  organizations, 
it  was  decided  that  our  combat  division  should  consist 
of  four  regiments  of  infantry  of  3,000  men,  with  three 
battalions  to  a  regiment  and  four  companies  of  250  men 
each  to  a  battalion,  and  of  an  artillery  brigade  of  three 
regiments,  a  machine-gun  battalion,  an  engineer  regiment, 
a  trench-mortar  battery,  a  signal  battalion,  wagon  trains, 
and  the  headquarters  staffs  and  military  police.  These, 
with  medical  and  other  units,  made  a  total  of  over  £8,000 
men,  or  practically  double  the  size  of  a  French  or  German 
division.  Each  corps  would  normally  consist  of  six  divi- 
sions— four  combat  and  one  depot  and  one  replacement 
division — and  also  two  regiments  of  cavalry,  and  each 
army  of  from  three  to  five  corps.  With  four  divisions  fully 
trained,  a  corps  could  take  over  an  American  sector  with 
two  divisions  in  line  and  two  in  reserve,  with  the  depot 


306         GENERAL  PERSHING'S  REPORT 

and  replacement  divisions  prepared  to  fill  the  gaps  in  the 
ranks. 

Our  purpose  was  to  prepare  an  integral  American  force 
which  should  be  able  to  take  the  offensive  in  every  re- 
spect. Accordingly,  the  development  of  a  self-reliant 
infantry  by  thorough  drill  in  the  use  of  the  rifle  and  in 
the  tactics  of  open  warfare  was  always  uppermost.  The 
plan  of  training  after  arrival  in  France  allowed  a  division 
one  month  for  acclimatization  and  instruction  in  small 
units  from  battalions  down,  a  second  month  in  quiet 
trench  sectors  by  battalion,  and  a  third  month  after  it 
came  out  of  the  trenches  when  it  should  be  trained  as  a 
complete  division  in  war  of  movement. 

Very  early  a  system  of  schools  was  outlined  and  started 
which  should  have  the  advantage  of  instruction  by  officers 
direct  from  the  front.  At  the  great  school  centre  at 
Langres,  one  of  the  first  to  be  organized,  was  the  staff 
school,  where  the  principles  of  general  staff  work,  as  laid 
down  in  our  own  organization,  were  taught  to  carefully 
selected  officers.  Men  in  the  ranks  who  had  shown  quali- 
ties of  leadership  were  sent  to  the  school  of  candidates 
for  commissions.  A  school  of  the  Ime  taught  younger 
officers  the  principles  of  leadership,  tactics,  and  the  use 
of  the  different  weapons.  In  the  artillery  school,  at  Sau- 
mur,  young  officers  were  taught  the  fundamental  princi- 
ples of  modern  artillery;  while  at  Issoudun  an  immense 
plant  was  built  for  training  cadets  in  aviation.  These  and 
other  schools,  with  their  well-considered  curriculums  for 
training  in  every  branch  of  our  organization,  were  co- 
ordinated in  a  manner  best  to  develop  an  efficient  army 
out  of  willing  and  industrious  young  men,  many  of  whom 
had  not  before  known  even  the  rudiments  of  military 
technique.  Both  Marshal  Haig  and  General  Petain  placed 


GENERAL  PERSHING'S  REPORT         307 

officers  and  men  at  our  disposal  for  instructional  purposes, 
and  we  are  deeply  indebted  for  the  opportunities  given 
to  profit  by  their  veteran  experience. 

AMERICAN  ZONE 

The  eventual  place  the  American  Army  should  take  on 
the  western  front  was  to  a  large  extent  influenced  by  the 
vital  questions  of  communication  and  supply.  The 
northern  ports  of  France  were  crowded  by  the  British 
Armies'  shipping  and  supplies,  while  the  southern  ports, 
though  otherwise  at  our  service,  had  not  adequate  port 
facilities  for  our  purposes,  and  these  we  should  have  to 
build.  The  already  overtaxed  railway  system  behind  the 
active  front  in  Northern  France  would  not  be  available 
for  us  as  lines  of  supply,  and  those  leading  from  the 
southern  ports  of  Northeastern  France  would  be  unequal 
to  our  needs  without  much  new  construction.  Practically 
all  warehouses,  supply  depots,  and  regulating  stations 
must  be  provided  by  fresh  constructions.  While  France 
offered  us  such  material  as  she  had  to  spare  after  a  drain 
of  three  years,  enormous  quantities  of  material  had  to  be 
brought  across  the  Atlantic. 

With  such  a  problem  any  temporization  or  lack  of  defi- 
niteness  in  making  plans  might  cause  failure  even  with 
victory  within  our  grasp.  Moreover,  broad  plans  com- 
mensurate with  our  national  purpose  and  resources  would 
bring  conviction  of  our  power  to  every  soldier  in  the  front 
line,  to  the  nations  associated  with  us  in  the  war,  and  to 
the  enemy.  The  tonnage  for  material  for  necessary  con- 
struction for  the  supply  of  an  army  of  three  and  perhaps 
four  million  men  would  require  a  mammoth  programme 
of  shipbuilding  at  home,  and  miles  of  dock  construction 


308         GENERAL  PERSHING'S  REPORT 

in  France,  with  a  corresponding  large  project  for  addi- 
tional railways  and  for  storage  depots. 

All  these  considerations  led  to  the  inevitable  conclusion 
that  if  we  were  to  handle  and  supply  the  great  forces 
deemed  essential  to  win  the  war  we  must  utilize  the 
southern  ports  of  France — Bordeaux,  La  Pallice,  St.  Na- 
zaire,  and  Brest — and  the  comparatively  unused  railway 
systems  leading  therefrom  to  the  northeast.  Generally 
speaking,  then,  this  would  contemplate  the  use  of  our 
forces  against  the  enemy  somewhere  in  that  direction, 
but  the  great  depots  of  supply  must  be  centrally  located, 
preferably  in  the  area  included  by  Tours,  Bourges,  and 
Chateauroux,  so  that  our  armies  could  be  supplied  with 
equal  facility  wherever  they  might  be  serving  on  the 
western  front. 

GROWTH  OF  SUPPLY  SERVICE 

To  build  up  such  a  system  there  were  talented  men  in 
the  Regular  Army,  but  more  experts  were  necessary  than 
the  army  could  furnish.  Thanks  to  the  patriotic  spirit  of 
our  people  at  home,  there  came  from  civil  life  men  trained 
for  every  sort  of  work  involved  in  building  and  managing 
the  organization  necessary  to  handle  and  transport  such 
an  army  and  keep  it  supplied.  With  such  assistance  the 
construction  and  general  development  of  our  plans  have 
kept  pace  with  the  growth  of  the  forces,  and  the  Service 
of  Supply  is  now  able  to  discharge  from  ships  and  move 
45,000  tons  daily,  besides  transporting  troops  and  mate- 
rial in  the  conduct  of  active  operations. 

As  to  organization,  all  the  administrative  and  supply 
services,  except  the  Adjutant  General's,  Inspector  Gen- 
eral's, and  Judge  Advocate  General's  Departments,  which 
remain  at  general  headquarters,  have  been  transferred  to 


GENERAL  PERSHING'S  REPORT         309 

the  headquarters  of  the  services  of  supplies  at  Tours  under 
a  commanding  General  responsible  to  the  Commander-in- 
Chief  for  supply  of  the  armies.  The  Chief  Quartermaster, 
Chief  Surgeon,  Chief  Signal  Officer,  Chief  of  Ordnance, 
Chief  of  Air  Service,  Chief  of  Chemical  WarfaTe,  the  gen- 
eral purchasing  agent  in  all  that  pertains  to  questions  of 
procurement  and  supply,  the  Provost  Marshal  General  in 
the  maintenance  of  order  in  general,  the  Director  General 
of  Transportation  in  all  that  affects  such  matters,  and  the 
Chief  Engineer  in  all  matters  of  administration  and  sup- 
ply, are  subordinate  to  the  Commanding  General  of  the 
Service  of  Supply,  who,  assisted  by  a  staff  especially  organ- 
ized for  the  purpose,  is  charged  with  the  administrative 
co-ordination  of  all  these  services. 

The  transportation  department  under  the  Service  of 
Supply  directs  the  operation,  maintenance,  and  construc- 
tion of  railways,  the  operation  of  terminals,  the  unloading 
of  ships,  and  transportation  of  material  to  warehouses  or 
to  the  front.  Its  functions  make  necessary  the  most 
intimate  relationship  between  our  organization  and  that 
of  the  French,  with  the  practical  result  that  our  transpor- 
tation department  has  been  able  to  improve  materially 
the  operations  of  railways  generally.  Constantly  labor- 
ing under  a  shortage  of  rolling  stock,  the  transportation 
department  has  nevertheless  been  able  by  efficient  man- 
agement to  meet  every  emergency. 

The  Engineer  Corps  is  charged  with  all  construction, 
including  light  railways  and  roads.  It  has  planned  and 
constructed  the  many  projects  required,  the  most  impor- 
tant of  which  are  the  new  wharves  at  Bordeaux  and 
Nantes,  and  the  immense  storage  depots  at  La  Pallice, 
Mointoir,  and  Glevres,  besides  innumerable  hospitals  and 
barracks  in  various  ports  of  France.  These  projects  have 


310         GENERAL  PERSHING'S  REPORT 

all  been  carried  on  by  phases  keeping  pace  with  our 
needs.  The  Forestry  Service  under  the  Engineer  Corps 
has  cut  the  greater  part  of  the  timber  and^  railway  ties 
required. 

To  meet  the  shortage  of  supplies  from  America,  due  to 
lack  of  shipping,  the  representatives  of  the  different  sup- 
ply departments  were  constantly  in  search  of  available 
material  and  supplies  in  Europe.  In  order  to  co-ordinate 
these  purchases  and  to  prevent  competition  between  our 
departments,  a  general  purchasing  agency  was  created 
early  in  our  experience  to  co-ordinate  our  purchases  and, 
if  possible,  induce  our  allies  to  apply  the  principle  among 
the  allied  armies.  While  there  was  no  authority  for  the 
general  use  of  appropriations,  this  was  met  by  grouping 
the  purchasing  representatives  of  the  different  depart- 
ments under  one  control,  charged  with  the  duty  of  con- 
solidating requisitions  and  purchases.  Our  efforts  to  ex- 
tend the  principle  have  been  signally  successful,  and  all 
purchases  for  the  allied  armies  are  now  on  an  equitable 
and  co-operative  basis.  Indeed,  it  may  be  said  that  the 
work  of  this  bureau  has  been  thoroughly  efficient  and 
businesslike. 

ARTILLERY,  AIRPLANES,  TANKS 

Our  entry  into  the  war  found  us  with  few  of  the  auxil- 
iaries necessary  for  its  conduct  in  the  modern  sense. 
Among  our  most  important  deficiencies  in  material  were 
artillery,  aviation,  and  tanks.  In  order  to  meet  our  re- 
quirements as  rapidly  as  possible,  we  accepted  the  offer  of 
the  French  Government  to  provide  us  with  the  necessary 
artillery  equipment  of  seventy-fives,  one  fifty-five  milli- 
meter howitzers,  and  one  fifty-five  G.  P.  F.  guns  from 
their  own  factories  for  thirty  divisions.  The  wisdom  of 


GENERAL  PERSHING'S  REPORT         311 

this  course  is  fully  demonstrated  by  the  fact  that,  although 
we  soon  began  the  manufacture  of  these  classes  of  guns 
at  home,  there  were  no  guns  of  the  calibres  mentioned 
manufactured  in  America  on  our  front  at  the  date  the 
armistice  was  signed.  The  only  guns  of  these  types  pro- 
duced at  home  thus  far  received  in  France  are  109  seventy- 
five  millimeter  guns. 

In  aviation  we  were  in  the  same  situation,  and  here 
again  the  French  Government  came  to  our  aid  until  our 
own  aviation  programme  should  be  under  way.  We  ob- 
tained from  the  French  the  necessary  planes  for  training 
our  personnel,  and  they  have  provided  us  with  a  total  of 
2,676  pursuit,  observation,  and  bombing  planes.  The 
first  airplanes  received  from  home  arrived  in  May,  and 
altogether  we  have  received  1,379.  The  first  American 
squadron  completely  equipped  by  American  production, 
including  airplanes,  crossed  the  German  lines  on  Aug.  7, 
1918.  As  to  tanks,  we  were  also  compelled  to  rely  upon 
the  French.  Here,  however,  we  were  less  fortunate,  for 
the  reason  that  the  French  production  could  barely  meet 
the  requirements  of  their  own  armies. 

It  should  be  fully  realized  that  the  French  Government 
has  always  taken  a  most  liberal  attitude,  and  has  been 
most  anxious  to  give  us  every  possible  assistance  in  meet- 
ing our  deficiencies  in  these  as  well  as  in  other  respects. 
Our  dependence  upon  France  for  artillery,  aviation,  and 
tanks  was,  of  course,  due  to  the  fact  that  our  industries 
had  not  been  exclusively  devoted  to  military  production. 
All  credit  is  due  our  own  manufacturers  for  their  efforts 
to  meet  our  requirements,  as  at  the  time  the  armistice 
was  signed  we  were  able  to  look  forward  to  the  early  sup- 
ply of  practically  all  our  necessities  from  our  own  fac- 
tories. 


312         GENERAL  PERSHING'S  REPORT 

The  welfare  of  the  troops  touches  my  responsibility  as 
Commander  in  Chief  to  the  mothers  and  fathers  and  kin- 
dred of  the  men  who  came  to  France  in  the  impression- 
able period  of  youth.  They  could  not  have  the  privilege 
accorded  European  soldiers  during  their  periods  of  leave 
of  visiting  their  families  and  renewing  their  home  ties. 
Fully  realizing  that  the  standard  of  conduct  that  should 
be  established  for  them  must  have  a  permanent  influence 
in  their  lives  and  on  the  character  of  their  future  citizen- 
ship, the  Red  Cross,  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion, Knights  of  Columbus,  the  Salvation  Army,  and  the 
Jewish  Welfare  Board,  as  auxiliaries  in  this  work,  were 
encouraged  in  every  possible  way.  The  fact  that  our 
soldiers,  in  a  land  of  different  customs  and  language,  have 
borne  themselves  in  a  manner  in  keeping  with  the  cause 
for  which  they  fought,  is  due  not  only  to  the  efforts  in 
their  behalf,  but  much  more  to  their  high  ideals,  their 
discipline,  and  their  innate  sense  of  self-respect.  It  should 
be  recorded,  however,  that  the  members  of  these  welfare 
societies  have  been  untiring  in  their  desire  to  be  of  real 
service  to  our  officers  and  men.  The  patriotic  devotion 
of  these  representative  men  and  women  has  given  a  new 
significance  to  the  Golden  Rule,  and  we  owe  to  them  a 
debt  of  gratitude  that  can  never  be  repaid. 

COMBAT  OPERATIONS 

During  our  period  of  training  in  the  trenches  some  of 
our  divisions  had  engaged  the  enemy  in  local  combats, 
the  most  important  of  which  was  Seicheprey  by  the  26th 
on  April  20,  in  the  Toul  sector,  but  none  had  participated 
in  action  as  a  unit.  The  1st  Division,  which  had  passed 
through  the  preliminary  stages  of  training,  had  gone  to 
the  trenches  for  its  first  period  of  instruction  at  the  end 


GENERAL  PERSHING'S  REPORT         313 

of  October,  and  by  March  21,  when  the  German  offensive 
in  Picardy  began,  we  had  four  divisions  with  experience 
in  the  trenches,  all  of  which  were  equal  to  any  demands 
of  battle  action.  The  crisis  which  this  offensive  developed 
was  such  that  our  occupation  of  an  American  sector  must 
be  postponed. 

On  March  28  I  placed  at  the  disposal  of  Marshal  Foch, 
who  had  been  agreed  upon  as  Commander  in  Chief  of  the 
Allied  Armies,  all  of  our  forces,  to  be  used  as  he  might  de- 
cide. At  his  request  the  1st  Division  was  transferred 
from  the  Toul  sector  to  a  position  in  reserve  at  Chau- 
mont  en  Vexin.  As  German  superiority  in  numbers  re- 
quired prompt  action,  an  agreement  was  reached  at  the 
Abbeville  conference  of  the  allied  Premiers  and  com- 
manders and  myself  on  May  2  by  which  British  shipping 
was  to  transport  ten  American  divisions  to  the  British 
Army  area,  where  they  were  to  be  trained  and  equipped, 
and  additional  British  shipping  was  to  be  provided  for 
as  many  divisions  as  possible  for  use  elsewhere. 

On  April  26  the  1st  Division  had  gone  into  the  line  in 
the  Montdidier  salient  on  the  Picardy  battlefront.  Tac- 
tics had  been  suddenly  revolutionized  to  those  of  open 
warfare,  and  our  men,  confident  of  the  results  of  their 
training,  were  eager  for  the  test.  On  the  morning  of  May 
28  this  division  attacked  the  commanding  German  posi- 
tion in  its  front,  taking  with  splendid  dash  the  town  of 
Cantigny  and  all  other  objectives,  which  were  organized 
and  held  steadfastly  against  vicious  counterattacks  and 
galling  artillery  fire.  Although  local,  this  brilliant 
action  had  an  electrical  effect,  as  it  demonstrated  our 
fighting  qualities  under  extreme  battle  conditions,  and 
also  that  the  enemy's  troops  were  not  altogether  in- 
vincible. 


314         GENERAL  PERSHING'S  REPORT 

HOLDING  THE  MABNE 

The  Germans'  Aisne  offensive,  which  began  on  May  27, 
had  advanced  rapidly  toward  the  River  Marne  and  Paris, 
and  the  Allies  faced  a  crisis  equally  as  grave  as  that  of  the 
Picardy  offensive  in  March.  Again  every  available  man 
was  placed  at  Marshal  Foch's  disposal,  and  the  3d  Divi- 
sion, which  had  just  come  from  its  preliminary  training 
in  the  trenches,  was  hurried  to  the  Marne.  Its  motorized 
machine-gun  battalion  preceded  the  other  units  and  suc- 
cessfully held  the  bridgehead  at  the  Marne,  opposite 
Chdteau-Thierry.  The  2d  Division,  in  reserve  near 
Montdidier,  was  sent  by  motor  trucks  and  other  availa- 
ble transport  to  check  the  progress  of  the  enemy  toward 
Paris.  The  division  attacked  and  retook  the  town  and 
railroad  station  at  Bouresches  and  sturdily  held  its  ground 
against  the  enemy's  best  guard  divisions.  In  the  battle 
of  Belleau  Wood,  which  followed,  our  men  proved  their 
superiority  and  gained  a  strong  tactical  position,  with  far 
greater  loss  to  the  enemy  than  to  ourselves.  On  July  1, 
before  the  2d  was  relieved,  it  captured  the  village  of  Vaux 
with  most  splendid  precision. 

Meanwhile  our  2d  Corps,  under  Major  Gen.  George 
W.  Read,  had  been  organized  for  the  command  of  our 
divisions  with  the  British,  which  were  held  back  in 
training  areas  or  assigned  to  second-line  defenses.  Five 
of  the  ten  divisions  were  withdrawn  from  the  British 
area  in  June,  three  to  relieve  divisions  in  Lorraine,  and 
in  the  Vosges  and  two  to  the  Paris  area  to  join  the 
group  of  American  divisions  which  stood  between  the 
city  and  any  further  advance  of  the  enemy  in  that 
direction. 

The  great  June-July  troop  movement  from  the  States 


GENERAL  PERSHING'S  REPORT         315 

was  well  under  way,  and,  although  these  troops  were  to 
be  given  some  preliminary  training  before  being  put  into 
action,  their  very  presence  warranted  the  use  of  all  the 
older  divisions  in  the  confidence  that  we  did  not  lack 
reserves.  Elements  of  the  42d  Division  were  in  the  line 
east  of  Rheims  against  the  German  offensive  of  July  15, 
and  held  their  ground  unflinchingly.  On  the  right  flank 
of  this  offensive  four  companies  of  the  28th  Division 
were  in  position  in  face  of  the  advancing  waves  of  the 
German  infantry.  The  3d  Division  was  holding  the 
bank  of  the  Marne  from  the  bend  east  of  the  mouth  of 
the  Surmelin  to  the  west  of  Mezy,  opposite  Chateau- 
Thierry,  where  a  large  force  of  German  infantry  sought  to 
force  a  passage  under  support  of  powerful  artillery  con- 
centrations and  under  cover  of  smoke  screens.  A  single 
regiment  of  the  3d  wrote  one  of  the  most  brilliant  pages 
in  our  military  annals  on  this  occasion.  It  prevented 
the  crossing  at  certain  points  on  its  front  while,  on  either 
flank,  the  Germans,  who  had  gained  a  footing,  pressed 
forward.  Our  men,  firing  in  three  directions,  met  the 
German  attacks  with  counterattacks  at  critical  points 
and  succeeded  in  throwing  two  German  divisions  into 
complete  confusion,  capturing  600  prisoners. 

OFFENSIVE  OF  JULY  18 

The  great  force  of  the  German  Chdteau-Thierry  offen- 
sive established  the  deep  Marne  salient,  but  the  enemy 
was  taking  chances,  and  the  vulnerability  of  this  pocket 
to  attack  might  be  turned  to  his  disadvantage.  Seizing 
this  opportunity  to  support  my  conviction,  every  division 
with  any  sort  of  training  was  made  available  for  use  in 
a  counteroffensive.  The  place  of  honor  in  the  thrust 
toward  Soissons  on  July  18  was  given  to  our  1st  and  2d 


316         GENERAL  PERSHING'S  REPORT 

Divisions  in  company  with  chosen  French  divisions. 
Without  the  usual  brief  warning  of  a  preliminary  bombard- 
ment, the  massed  French  and  American  artillery,  firing 
by  the  map,  laid  down  its  rolling  barrage  at  dawn  while 
the  infantry  began  its  charge.  The  tactical  handling  of 
our  troops  under  these  trying  conditions  was  excellent 
throughout  the  action.  The  enemy  brought  up  large 
numbers  of  reserves  and  made  a  stubborn  defense  both 
with  machine  guns  and  artillery,  but  through  five  days' 
fighting  the  1st  Division  continued  to  advance  until  it 
had  gained  the  heights  above  Soissons  and  captured  the 
village  of  Berzy-le-Sec.  The  2d  Division  took  Beau 
Repaire  Farm  and  Vierzy  in  a  very  rapid  advance  and 
reached  a  position  in  front  of  Tigny  at  the  end  of  its  sec- 
Dnd  day.  These  two  divisions  captured  7,000  prisoners 
and  over  100  pieces  of  artillery. 

The  26th  Division,  which,  with  a  French  division,  was 
under  command  of  our  1st  Corps,  acted  as  a  pivot  of  the 
movement  toward  Soissons.  On  the  18th  it  took  the 
village  of  Torcy,  while  the  3d  Division  was  crossing  the 
Marne  in  pursuit  of  the  retiring  enemy.  The  26th  at- 
tacked again  on  the  21st,  and  the  enemy  withdrew  past 
the  Chateau-Thierry-Soissons  road.  The  3d  Division, 
continuing  its  progress,  took  the  heights  of  Mont  St. 
Pere  and  the  villages  of  Charteves  and  Jaulgonne  in  the 
face  of  both  machine-gun  and  artillery  fire. 

On  the  24th,  after  the  Germans  had  fallen  back  from 
Trugny  and  Epieds,  our  42d  Division,  which  had  been 
brought  over  from  the  Champagne,  relieved  the  26th, 
and,  fighting  its  way  through  the  Foret  de  Fere,  over- 
whelmed the  nest  of  machine  guns  in  its  path.  By  the 
27th  it  had  reached  the  Ourcq,  whence  the  3d  and  4th 
Divisions  were  already  advancing,  while  the  French  divi- 


GENERAL  PERSHING'S  REPORT         317 

sions  with  which  we  were  co-operating  were  moving  for- 
ward at  other  points. 

The  3d  Division  had  made  its  advance  into  Roncheres 
Wood  on  the  29th  and  was  relieved  for  rest  by  a  brigade 
of  the  32d.  The  42d  and  32d  undertook  the  task  of  con- 
quering the  heights  beyond  Cierges,  the  42d  capturing 
Sergy  and  the  32d  capturing  Hill  230,  both  American 
divisions  joining  in  the  pursuit  of  the  enemy  to  the  Vesle, 
and  thus  the  operation  of  reducing  the  salient  was  fin- 
ished. Meanwhile  the  42d  was  relieved  by  the  4th  at 
Chery-Chartreuve,  and  the  32d  by  the  28th,  while  the 
77th  Division  took  up  a  position  on  the  Vesle.  The  opera- 
tions of  these  divisions  on  the  Vesle  were  under  the  3d 
Corps,  Major  Gen.  Robert  L.  Bullard  commanding. 

BATTLE  OF  ST.  MIHIEL 

With  the  reduction  of  the  Marne  salient,  we  could  look 
forward  to  the  concentration  of  our  divisions  in  our  own 
zone.  In  view  of  the  forthcoming  operation  against  the 
St.  Mihiel  salient,  which  had  long  been  planned  as  our 
first  offensive  action  on  a  large  scale,  the  First  Army  was 
organized  on  Aug.  10  under  my  personal  command. 
While  American  units  had  held  different  divisional  and 
corps  sectors  along  the  western  front,  there  had  not  been 
up  to  this  time,  for  obvious  reasons,  a  distinct  American 
sector;  but,  in  view  of  the  important  parts  the  American 
forces  were  now  to  play,  it  was  necessary  to  take  over  a 
permanent  portion  of  the  line.  Accordingly,  on  Aug. 
30,  the  line  beginning  at  Port  sur  Seille,  east  of  the  Mo- 
selle and  extending  to  the  west  through  St.  Mihiel,  thence 
north  to  a  point  opposite  Verdun,  was  placed  under  my 
command.  The  American  sector  was  afterward  extended 
across  the  Meuse  to  the  western  edge  of  the  Argonne 


318         GENERAL  PERSHING'S  REPORT 

Forest,  and  included  the  2d  Colonial  French,  which  held 
the  point  of  the  salient,  and  the  17th  French  Corps,  which 
occupied  the  heights  above  Verdun. 

The  preparation  for  a  complicated  operation  against 
the  formidable  defenses  in  front  of  us  included  the  assem- 
bling of  divisions  and  of  corps  and  army  artillery,  trans- 
port, aircraft,  tanks,  ambulances,  the  location  of  hos- 
pitals, and  the  molding  together  of  all  the  elements  of  a 
great  modern  army  with  its  own  railheads,  supplied  di- 
rectly by  our  own  Service  of  Supply.  The  concentra- 
tion for  this  operation,  which  was  to  be  a  surprise,  in- 
volved the  movement,  mostly  at  night,  of  approximately 
600,000  troops,  and  required  for  its  success  the  most 
careful  attention  to  every  detail. 

The  French  were  generous  in  giving  us  assistance  in 
corps  and  army  artillery,  with  its  personnel,  and  we  were 
confident  from  the  start  of  our  superiority  over  the  enemy 
in  guns  of  all  calibres.  Our  heavy  guns  were  able  to 
reach  Metz  and  to  interfere  seriously  with  German  rail 
movements.  The  French  Independent  Air  Force  was 
placed  under  my  command,  which,  together  with  the 
British  bombing  squadrons  and  our  air  forces,  gave  us 
the  largest  assembly  of  aviators  that  had  ever  been  en- 
gaged in  one  operation  on  the  western  front. 

From  Les  Eparges  around  the  nose  of  the  salient  at  St. 
Mihiel  to  the  Moselle  River  the  line  was,  roughly,  forty 
miles  long  and  situated  on  commanding  ground  greatly 
strengthened  by  artificial  defenses.  Our  1st  Corps  (82d, 
90th,  5th,  and  2d  Divisions),  under  command  of  Major 
Gen.  Hunter  Liggett,  resting  its  right  on  Pont-a-Mousson, 
with  its  left  joining  our  3d  Corps  (the  89th,  42d,  and  1st 
Divisions),  under  Major  Gen.  Joseph  T.  Dickman,  in 
line  to  Xivray,  was  to  swing  toward  Vigneulles  on  the 


319 

pivot  of  the  Moselle  River  for  the  initial  assault.  From 
Xivray  to  Mouilly  the  2d  Colonial  French  Corps  was  in 
line  in  the  centre,  and  our  5th  Corps,  under  command  of 
Major  Gen.  George  H.  Cameron,  with  our  26th  Division 
and  a  French  division  at  the  western  base  of  the  salient, 
was  to  attack  three  difficult  hills — Les  Eparges,  Combres, 
and  Amaranthe.  Our  1st  Corps  had  in  reserve  the  78th 
Division,  our  4th  Corps  the  3d  Division,  and  our  First 
Army  the  35th  and  91st  Divisions,  with  the  80th  and  33d 
available.  It  should  be  understood  that  our  corps  or- 
ganizations are  very  elastic,  and  that  we  have  at  no  time 
had  permanent  assignments  of  divisions  to  corps. 

After  four  hours'  artillery  preparation,  the  seven 
American  divisions  in  the  front  line  advanced  at  5  A.  M. 
on  Sept.  12,  assisted  by  a  limited  number  of  tanks,  manned 
partly  by  Americans  and  partly  by  French.  These  divi- 
sions, accompanied  by  groups  of  wire  cutters  and  others 
armed  with  bangalore  torpedoes,  went  through  the  suc- 
cessive bands  of  barbed  wire  that  protected  the  enemy's 
front-line  and  support  trenches  in  irresistible  waves  on 
schedule  time,  breaking  down  all  defense  of  an  enemy 
demoralized  by  the  great  volume  of  our  artillery  fire  and 
our  sudden  approach  out  of  the  fog. 

Our  1st  Corps  advanced  to  Thiaucourt,  while  our  4th 
Corps  curved  back  to  the  southwest  through  Nonsard. 
The  2d  Colonial  French  Corps  made  the  slight  advance 
required  of  it  on  very  difficult  ground,  and  the  5th  Corps 
took  its  three  ridges  and  repulsed  a  counterattack.  A 
rapid  march  brought  reserve  regiments  of  a  division  of 
the  5th  Corps  into  Vigneulles  and  beyond  Fresnes-en- 
Woevre.  At  the  cost  of  only  7,000  casualties,  mostly 
light,  we  had  taken  16,000  prisoners  and  443  guns,  a  great 
quantity  of  material,  released  the  inhabitants  of  many 


320         GENERAL  PERSHING'S  REPORT 

villages  from  enemy  domination,  and  established  our 
lines  in  a  position  to  threaten  Metz.  This  signal  success 
of  the  American  First  Army  in  its  first  offensive  was  of 
prime  importance.  The  Allies  found  they  had  a  formida- 
ble army  to  aid  them,  and  the  enemy  learned  finally  that 
he  had  one  to  reckon  with. 

METJSE-ARGONNE  OFFENSIVE,  FIRST  PHASE 

On  the  day  after  we  had  taken  the  St.  Mihiel  salient 
much  of  our  corps  and  army  artillery  which  had  operated 
at  St.  Mihiel,  and  our  divisions  in  reserve  at  other  points, 
were  already  on  the  move  toward  the  area  back  of  the 
line  between  the  Meuse  River  and  the  western  edge  of 
the  Forest  of  Argonne.  With  the  exception  of  St.  Mihiel 
the  old  German  front  line  from  Switzerland  to  the  east 
of  Rheims  was  still  intact.  In  the  general  attack  all  along 
the  line  the  operations  assigned  the  American  Army  as  the 
hinge  of  this  allied  offensive  were  directed  toward  the 
important  railroad  communications  of  the  German  armies 
through  Mezieres  and  Sedan.  The  enemy  must  hold 
fast  to  this  part  of  his  lines,  or  the  withdrawal  of  his 
forces,  with  four  years'  accumulation  of  plants  and  mate- 
rial, would  be  dangerously  imperiled. 

The  German  Army  had  as  yet  shown  no  demoraliza- 
tion, and,  while  the  mass  of  its  troops  had  suffered  in 
morale,  its  first-class  divisions,  and  notably  its  machine- 
gun  defense,  were  exhibiting  remarkable  tactical  efficiency 
as  well  as  courage.  The  German  General  Staff  was  fully 
aware  of  the  consequences  of  a  success  on  the  Meuse- 
Argonne  line.  Certain  that  he  would  do  everything  in 
his  power  to  oppose  us,  the  action  was  planned  with  as 
much  secrecy  as  possible  and  was  undertaken  with  the 
determination  to  use  all  our  divisions  in  forcing  decision. 


GENERAL  PERSHING'S  REPORT         321 

We  expected  to  draw  the  best  German  divisions  to  our 
front  and  to  consume  them  while  the  enemy  was  held 
under  grave  apprehension  lest  our  attack  should  break 
his  line,  which  it  was  our  firm  purpose  to  do. 

Our  right  flank  was  protected  by  the  Meuse,  while  our 
left  embraced  the  Argonne  Forest,  whose  ravines,  hills, 
and  elaborate  defense,  screened  by  dense  thickets,  had 
been  generally  considered  impregnable.  Our  order  of 
battle  from  right  to  left  was  the  3d  Corps  from  the  Meuse 
to  Malancourt,  with  the  33d,  80th,  and  4th  Divisions  in 
line  and  the  3d  Division  as  corps  reserve;  the  5th  Corps 
from  Malancourt  to  Vauquois,  with  the  79th,  87th,  and 
91st  Divisions  hi  line  and  the  32d  in  corps  reserve,  and  the 
1st  Corps  from  Vauquois  to  Vienne  le  Chateau,  with  the 
35th,  28th,  and  77th  Divisions  in  line  and  the  92d  in  corpe 
reserve.  The  army  reserve  consisted  of  the  1st,  29th, 
and  82d  Divisions. 

On  the  night  of  Sept.  25  our  troops  quietly  took  the 
place  of  the  French,  who  thinly  held  the  line  in  this  sector, 
which  had  long  been  inactive.  In  the  attack  which  be- 
gan on  the  26th  we  drove  through  the  barbed-wire  en- 
tanglements and  the  sea  of  shell  craters  across  No  Man's 
Land,  mastering  all  the  first-line  defenses.  Continuing 
on  the  27th  and  28th,  against  machine  guns  and  artillery 
of  an  increasing  number  of  enemy  reserve  divisions,  we 
penetrated  to  a  depth  of  from  three  to  seven  miles  and 
took  the  village  of  Montfaucon  and  its  commanding  hill 
and  Exermont,  Gercourt,  Cuisy,  Septsarges,  Malancourt, 
Ivoiry,  Epinonville,  Charpentry,  Very,  and  other  villages. 
East  of  the  Meuse  one  of  our  divisions,  which  was  with  the 
2d  Colonial  French  Corps,  captured  Marcheville  and  Rie- 
ville,  giving  further  protection  to  the  flank  of  our  main 
body.  We  had  taken  10,000  prisoners,  we  had  gained 


322         GENERAL  PERSHING'S  REPORT 

our  point  of  forcing  the  battle  into  the  open,  and  were 
prepared  for  the  enemy's  reaction,  which  was  bound  to 
come,  as  he  had  good  roads  and  ample  railroad  facilities 
for  bringing  up  his  artillery  and  reserves. 

In  the  chill  rain  of  dark  nights  our  engineers  had  to 
build  new  roads  across  spongy,  shell-torn  areas,  repair 
broken  roads  beyond  No  Man's  Land,  and  build  bridges. 
Our  gunners,  with  no  thought  of  sleep,  put  their  shoulders 
to  wheels  and  drag  ropes  to  bring  their  guns  through  the 
mire  in  support  of  the  infantry,  now  under  the  increasing 
fire  of  the  enemy's  artillery.  Our  attack  had  taken  the 
enemy  by  surprise,  but,  quickly  recovering  himself,  he 
began  to  fire  counterattacks  in  strong  force,  supported  by 
heavy  bombardments,  with  large  quantities  of  gas.  From 
Sept.  28  until  Oct.  4  we  maintained  the  offensive  against 
patches  of  woods  defended  by  snipers  and  continuous 
lines  of  machine  guns,  and  pushed  forward  our  guns  and 
transport,  seizing  strategical  points  in  preparation  for 
further  attacks. 

OTHER  UNITS  WITH  ALLIES 

Other  divisions  attached  to  the  allied  armies  were  doing 
their  part.  It  was  the  fortune  of  our  2d  Corps,  composed 
of  the  27th  and  30th  Divisions,  which  had  remained  with 
the  British,  to  have  a  place  of  honor  in  co-operation  with 
the  Australian  Corps  on  Sept.  29  and  Oct.  1  in  the  assault 
on  the  Hindenburg  line  where  the  St.  Quentin  Canal 
passes  through  a  tunnel  under  a  ridge.  The  30th  Division 
speedily  broke  through  the  main  line  of  defense  for  all 
its  objectives,  while  the  27th  pushed  on  impetuously 
through  the  main  line  until  some  of  its  elements  reached 
Gouy.  In  the  midst  of  the  maze  of  trenches  and  shell 
craters  and  under  crossfire  from  machine  guns  the  other 


GENERAL  PERSHING'S  REPORT         323 

elements  fought  desperately  against  odds.  In  this  and 
in  later  actions,  from  Oct.  6  to  Oct.  19,  our  2d  Corps  cap- 
tured over  6,000  prisoners  and  advanced  over  thirteen 
miles.  The  spirit  and  aggressiveness  of  these  divisions 
have  been  highly  praised  by  the  British  Army  commander 
under  whom  they  served. 

On  Oct.  2-9  our  2d  and  36th  Divisions  were  sent  to 
assist  the  French  in  an  important  attack  against  the  old 
German  positions  before  Rheims.  The  2d  conquered  the 
complicated  defense  works  on  their  front  against  a  per- 
sistent defense  worthy  of  the  grimmest  period  of  trench 
warfare  and  attacked  the  strongly  held  wooded  hill  of 
Blanc  Mont,  which  they  captured  in  a  second  assault, 
sweeping  over  it  with  consummate  dash  and  skill.  This 
division  then  repulsed  strong  counterattacks  before  the 
village  and  cemetery  of  Ste.  Etienne  and  took  the  town, 
forcing  the  Germans  to  fall  back  from  before  Rheims  and 
yield  positions  they  had  held  since  September,  1914. 
On  Oct.  9  the  36th  Division  relieved  the  2d,  and  in  its 
first  experience  under  fire  withstood  very  severe  artillery 
bombardment  and  rapidly  took  up  the  pursuit  of  the 
enemy,  now  retiring  behind  the  Aisne. 

MEUSE-ARGONNE  OFFENSIVE,  SECOND  PHASE 

The  allied  progress  elsewhere  cheered  the  efforts  of  our 
men  in  this  crucial  contest,  as  the  German  command 
threw  in  more  and  more  first-class  troops  to  stop  our 
advance.  We  made  steady  headway  in  the  almost  im- 
penetrable and  strongly  held  Argonne  Forest,  for,  despite 
this  reinforcement,  it  was  our  army  that  was  doing  the 
driving.  Our  aircraft  was  increasing  in  skill  and  numbers 
and  forcing  the  issue,  and  our  infantry  and  artillery  were 
improving  rapidly  with  each  new  experience.  The  re- 


324         GENERAL  PERSHING'S  REPORT 

placements  fresh  from  home  were  put  into  exhausted  divi- 
sions with  little  time  for  training,  but  they  had  the  ad- 
vantage of  serving  beside  men  who  knew  their  business 
and  who  had  almost  become  veterans  overnight.  The 
enemy  had  taken  every  advantage  of  the  terrain,  which 
especially  favored  the  defense,  by  a  prodigal  use  of  machine 
guns  manned  by  highly  trained  veterans  and  by  using  his 
artillery  at  short  ranges.  In  the  face  of  such  strong 
frontal  positions  we  should  have  been  unable  to  accom- 
plish any  progress  according  to  previously  accepted 
standards,  but  I  had  every  confidence  in  our  aggressive 
tactics  and  the  courage  of  our  troops. 

On  Oct.  4  the  attack  was  renewed  all  along  our  front. 
The  3d  Corps,  tilting  to  the  left,  followed  the  Brieulles- 
Cunel  road;  our  5th  Corps  took  Gesnes,  while  the  1st 
Corps  advanced  for  over  two  miles  along  the  irregular 
valley  of  the  Aire  River  and  in  the  wooded  hills  of  the 
Argonne  that  bordered  the  river,  used  by  the  enemy  with 
all  his  art  and  weapons  of  defense.  This  sort  of  fighting 
continued  against  an  enemy  striving  to  hold  every  foot 
of  ground  and  whose  very  strong  counterattacks  challenged 
us  at  every  point.  On  the  7th  the  1st  Corps  captured 
Chatal-Ch£nery  and  continued  along  the  river  to  Cornay. 
On  the  east  of  Meuse  sector  one  of  the  two  divisions,  co- 
operating with  the  French,  captured  Consenvoye  and  the 
Haumont  Woods.  On  the  9th  the  5th  Corps,  in  its  prog- 
ress up  the  Aire,  took  Fleville,  and  the  3d  Corps,  which 
had  continuous  fighting  against  odds,  was  working  its 
way  through  Brieulles  and  Cunel.  On  the  10th  we  had 
cleared  the  Argonne  Forest  of  the  enemy. 

It  was  now  necessary  to  constitute  a  second  army, 
and  on  Oct.  9  the  immediate  command  of  the  First  Army 
was  turned  over  to  Lieut.  Gen.  Hunter  Liggett.  The 


GENERAL  PERSHING'S  REPORT         325 

command  of  the  Second  Army,  whose  divisions  occupied 
a  sector  in  the  Woevre,  was  given  to  Lieut.  Gen.  Robert 
L.  Bullard,  who  had  been  commander  of  the  1st  Division 
and  then  of  the  3d  Corps.  Major  Gen.  Dickman  was 
transferred  to  the  command  of  the  1st  Corps,  while  the 
5th  Corps  was  placed  under  Major  Gen.  Charles  P.  Sum- 
merall,  who  had  recently  commanded  the  1st  Division. 
Major  Gen.  John  L.  Hines,  who  had  gone  rapidly  up  from 
regimental  to  division  commander,  was  assigned  to  the 
3d  Corps.  These  four  officers  had  been  in  France  from 
the  early  days  of  the  expedition  and  had  learned  their 
lessons  in  the  school  of  practical  warfare. 

Our  constant  pressure  against  the  enemy  brought  day 
by  day  more  prisoners,  mostly  survivors  from  machine- 
gun  nests  captured  in  fighting  at  close  quarters.  On  Oct. 
18  there  was  very  fierce  fighting  in  the  Caures  Woods 
east  of  the  Meuse  and  in  the  Ormont  Woods.  On  the 
14th  the  1st  Corps  took  St.  Juvin,  and  the  5th  Corps,  in 
hand-to-hand  encounters,  entered  the  formidable  Kriem- 
hilde  line,  where  the  enemy  had  hoped  to  check  us  in- 
definitely. Later  the  5th  Corps  penetrated  further  the 
Kriemhilde  line,  and  the  1st  Corps  took  Champigneulles 
and  the  important  town  of  Grandpre.  Our  dogged  offen- 
sive was  wearing  down  the  enemy,/  who  continued  des- 
perately to  throw  his  best  troops  against  us,  thus  weaken- 
ing his  line  in  front  of  our  allies  and  making  their  advance 
less  difficult. 

DIVISIONS  IN  BELGIUM 

Meanwhile  we  were  not  only  able  to  continue  the 
battle,  but  our  37th  and  91st  Divisions  were  hastily  with- 
drawn from  our  front  and  dispatched  to  help  the  French 
Army  in  Belgium.  Detraining  in  the  neighborhood  of 


326         GENERAL  PERSHING'S  REPORT 

Ypres,  these  divisions  advanced  by  rapid  stages  to  the 
fighting  line  and  were  assigned  to  adjacent  French  corps. 
On  Oct.  31,  in  continuation  of  the  Flanders  offensive,  they 
attacked  and  methodically  broke  down  all  enemy  resist- 
ance. On  Nov.  3  the  37th  had  completed  its  mission  in 
dividing  the  enemy  across  the  Escaut  River  and  firmly 
established  itself  along  the  east  bank  included  in  the  divi- 
sion zone  of  action.  By  a  clever  flanking  movement 
troops  of  the  91st  Division  captured  Spitaals  Bosschen, 
a  difficult  wood  extending  across  the  central  part  of  the 
division  sector,  reached  the  Escaut,  and  penetrated  into 
the  town  of  Audenarde.  These  divisions  received  high 
commendation  from  their  corps  commanders  for  their  dash 
and  energy. 

MEUSE-ARGONNE — LAST  PHASE 

On  the  23d  the  3d  and  5th  Corps  pushed  northward 
to  the  level  of  Bantheville.  While  we  continued  to  press 
forward  and  throw  back  the  enemy's  violent  counter- 
attacks with  great  loss  to  him,  a  regrouping  of  our  forces 
was  under  way  for  the  final  assault.  Evidences  of  loss 
of  morale  by  the  enemy  gave  our  men  more  confidence 
in  attack  and  more  fortitude  in  enduring  the  fatigue  of 
incessant  effort  and  the  hardships  of  very  inclement 
weather. 

With  comparatively  well-rested  divisions,  the  final  ad- 
vance in  the  Meuse-Argonne  front  was  begun  on  Nov.  1. 
Our  increased  artillery  force  acquitted  itself  magnificently 
in  support  of  the  advance,  and  the  enemy  broke  before 
the  determined  infantry,  which,  by  its  persistent  fighting 
of  the  past  weeks  and  the  dash  of  this  attack,  had  over- 
come his  will  to  resist.  The  3d  Corps  took  Ancreville, 
Doulcon,  and  Andevanne,  and  the  5th  Corps  took  Landres 


GENERAL  PERSHING'S  REPORT         327 

et  St.  Georges  and  pressed  through  successive  lines  of  re- 
sistance to  Bayonville  and  Chennery.  On  the  2d  the  1st 
Corps  joined  in  the  movement,  which  now  became  an 
impetuous  onslaught  that  could  not  be  stayed. 

On  the  3d  advance  troops  surged  forward  in  pursuit, 
some  by  motor  trucks,  while  the  artillery  pressed  along 
the  country  roads  close  behind.  The  1st  Corps  reached 
Authe  and  Chatillon-sur-Bar,  the  5th  Corps,  Fosse  and 
Nouart,  and  the  3d  Corps,  Halles,  penetrating  the  enemy's 
line  to  a  depth  of  twelve  miles.  Our  large-calibre  guns 
had  advanced  and  were  skillfully  brought  into  position 
to  fire  upon  the  important  lines  at  Montmedy,  Longuyon, 
and  Conflans.  Our  3d  Corps  crossed  the  Meuse  on  the 
5th,  and  the  other  corps,  in  the  full  confidence  that  the 
day  was  theirs,  eagerly  cleared  the  way  of  machine  guns 
as  they  swept  northward,  maintaining  complete  co- 
ordination throughout.  On  the  6th  a  division  of  the  1st 
Corps  reached  a  point  on  the  Meuse  opposite  Sedan, 
twenty-five  miles  from  our  line  of  departure.  The  stra- 
tegical goal  which  was  our  highest  hope  was  gained.  We 
had  cut  the  enemy's  main  line  of  communications,  and 
nothing  but  surrender  or  an  armistice  could  save  his  army 
from  complete  disaster. 

In  all  forty  enemy  divisions  had  been  used  against  us 
in  the  Meuse-Argonne  battle.  Between  Sept.  26  and 
Nov.  6  we  took  26,059  prisoners  and  468  guns  on  this 
front.  Our  divisions  engaged  were  the  1st,  2d,  3d,  4th, 
5th,  26th,  28th,  29th,  32d,  33d,  35th,  37th,  42d,  77th, 
78th,  79th,  80th,  82d,  89th,  90th,  and  91st.  Many  of  our 
divisions  remained  in  line  for  a  length  of  time  that  re- 
quired nerves  of  steel,  while  others  were  sent  in  again 
after  only  a  few  days  of  rest.  The  1st,  5th,  26th,  42d, 
77th,  80th,  89th,  and  90th  were  in  the  line  twice.  Al- 


328         GENERAL  PERSHING'S  REPORT 

though  some  of  the  divisions  were  fighting  their  first 
battle,  they  soon  became  equal  to  the  best. 

EAST  OF  THE  MEUSE 

On  the  three  days  preceding  Nov.  10,  the  3d,  the  £d 
Colonial,  and  the  17th  French  Corps  fought  a  difficult 
struggle  through  the  Meuse  hills  south  of  Stenay  and 
forced  the  enemy  into  the  plain.  Meanwhile,  my  plans 
for  further  use  of  the  American  forces  contemplated  an 
advance  between  the  Meuse  and  the  Moselle  in  the  direc- 
tion of  Longwy  by  the  First  Army,  while,  at  the  same  time, 
the  Second  Army  should  assure  the  offensive  toward  the 
rich  coal  fields  of  Briey.  These  operations  were  to  be 
followed  by  an  offensive  toward  Chateau-Salins  east  of 
the  Moselle,  thus  isolating  Metz.  Accordingly,  attacks 
on  the  American  front  had  been  ordered,  and  that  of  the 
Second  Army  was  in  progress  on  the  morning  of  Nov.  11 
when  instructions  were  received  that  hostilities  should 
cease  at  11  o'clock  A.  M. 

At  this  moment  the  line  of  the  American  sector,  from 
right  to  left,  began  at  Port-sur-Seille,  thence  across  the 
Moselle  to  Vandieres  and  through  the  Woevre  to  Bezon- 
vaux,  in  the  foothills  of  the  Meuse,  thence  along  to  the 
foothills  and  through  the  northern  edge  of  the  Woevre 
forests  to  the  Meuse  at  Mouzay,  thence  along  the  Meuse 
connecting  with  the  French  under  Sedan. 

RELATIONS  WITH  THE  ALLIES 

Co-operation  among  the  Allies  has  at  all  times  been 
most  cordial.  A  far  greater  effort  has  been  put  forth  by 
the  allied  armies  and  staffs  to  assist  us  than  could  have 
been  expected.  The  French  Government  and  Army  have 
always  stood  ready  to  furnish  us  with  supplies,  equip- 


GENERAL  PERSHING'S  REPORT         329 

ment,  and  transportation,  and  to  aid  us  in  every  way. 
In  the  towns  and  hamlets  wherever  our  troops  have  been 
stationed  or  billeted  the  French  people  have  everywhere 
received  them  more  as  relatives  and  intimate  friends  than 
as  soldiers  of  a  foreign  army.  For  these  things  words  are 
quite  inadequate  to  express  our  gratitude.  There  can  be 
no  doubt  that  the  relations  growing  out  of  our  associations 
here  assure  a  permanent  friendship  between  the  two 
peoples.  Although  we  have  not  been  so  intimately  asso- 
ciated with  the  people  of  Great  Britain,  yet  their  troops 
and  ours  when  thrown  together  have  always  warmly 
fraternized.  The  reception  of  those  of  our  forces  who 
have  passed  through  England  and  of  those  who  have 
been  stationed  there  has  always  been  enthusiastic.  Al- 
together it  has  been  deeply  impressed  upon  us  that  the 
ties  of  language  and  blood  bring  the  British  and  ourselves 
together  completely  and  inseparably. 

STRENGTH 

There  are  in  Europe  altogether,  including  a  regiment 
and  some  sanitary  units  with  the  Italian  Army  and  the 
organizations  at  Murmansk,  also  including  those  en  route 
from  the  States,  approximately  2,053,347  men,  less  our 
losses.  Of  this  total  there  are  in  France  1,338,169  com- 
batant troops.  Forty  divisions  have  arrived,  of  which 
the  infantry  personnel  of  ten  have  been  used  as  replace- 
ments, leaving  thirty  divisions  now  in  France  organized 
into  three  armies  of  three  corps  each. 

The  losses  of  the  Americans  up  to  Nov.  18  are:  Killed 
and  wounded,  36,145;  died  of  disease,  14,811;  deaths  un- 
classified, 2,204;  wounded,  179,625;  prisoners,  2,163; 
missing,  1,160.  We  have  captured  about  44,000  pris- 
oners and  1,400  guns,  howitzers,  and  trench  mortars. 


330         GENERAL  PERSHING'S  REPORT 

COMMENDATION 

The  duties  of  the  General  Staff,  as  well  as  those  of  the 
army  and  corps  staffs,  have  been  very  ably  performed. 
Especially  is  this  true  when  we  consider  the  new  and 
difficult  problems  with  which  they  have  been  confronted. 
This  body  of  officers,  both  as  individuals  and  as  an  or- 
ganization, has,  I  believe,  no  superiors  in  professional 
ability,  in  efficiency,  or  in  loyalty. 

Nothing  that  we  have  in  France  better  reflects  the 
efficiency  and  devotion  to  duty  of  Americans  in  general 
than  the  Service  of  Supply,  whose  personnel  is  thoroughly 
imbued  with  a  patriotic  desire  to  do  its  full  duty.  They 
have  at  all  times  fully  appreciated  their  responsibility  to 
the  rest  of  the  army,  and  the  results  produced  have  been 
most  gratifying. 

Our  Medical  Corps  is  especially  entitled  to  praise  for 
the  general  effectiveness  of  its  work,  both  in  hospital  and 
at  the  front.  Embracing  men  of  high  professional  at- 
tainments, and  splendid  women  devoted  to  their  calling 
and  untiring  in  their  efforts,  this  department  has  made  a 
new  record  for  medical  and  sanitary  proficiency. 

The  Quartermaster  Department  has  had  difficult  and 
various  tasks,  but  it  has  more  than  met  all  demands  that 
have  been  made  upon  it.  Its  management  and  its  per- 
sonnel have  been  exceptionally  efficient  and  deserve  every 
possible  commendation. 

As  to  the  more  technical  services,  the  able  personnel 
of  the  Ordnance  Department  in  France  has  splendidly 
fulfilled  its  functions,  both  in  procurement  and  in  for- 
warding the  immense  quantities  of  ordnance  required. 
The  officers  and  men  and  the  young  women  of  the  Signal 
Corps  have  performed  their  duties  with  a  large  concep- 


GENERAL  PERSHING'S  REPORT         331 

tion  of  the  problem,  and  with  a  devoted  and  patriotic 
spirit  to  which  the  perfection  of  our  communications  daily 
testifies.  While  the  Engineer  Corps  has  been  referred 
to  in  another  part  of  this  report,  it  should  be  further 
stated  that  the  work  has  required  large  vision  and  high 
professional  skill,  and  great  credit  is  due  their  personnel 
for  the  high  proficiency  that  they  have  constantly  main- 
tained. 

Our  aviators  have  no  equals  in  daring  or  in  fighting 
ability,  and  have  left  a  record  of  courageous  deeds  that 
will  ever  remain  a  brilliant  page  in  the  annals  of  our 
army.  While  the  Tank  Corps  has  had  limited  oppor- 
tunities, its  personnel  has  responded  gallantly  on  every 
possible  occasion,  and  has  shown  courage  of  the  highest 
order. 

The  Adjutant  General's  Department  has  been  directed 
with  a  systematic  thoroughness  and  excellence  that  sur- 
passed any  previous  work  of  its  kind.  The  Inspector 
General's  Department  has  risen  to  the  highest  standards, 
and  throughout  has  ably  assisted  commanders  in  the 
enforcement  of  discipline.  The  able  personnel  of  the 
Judge  Advocate  General's  Department  has  solved  with 
judgment  and  wisdom  the  multitude  of  difficult  legal 
problems,  many  of  them  involving  questions  of  great  in- 
ternational importance. 

It  would  be  impossible  in  this  brief  preliminary  report 
to  do  justice  to  the  personnel  of  all  the  different  branches 
of  this  organization,  which  I  shall  cover  in  detail  in  a 
later  report. 

The  navy  in  European  waters  has  at  all  times  most 
cordially  aided  the  army,  and  it  is  most  gratifying  to  re- 
port that  there  has  never  before  been  such  perfect  co- 
operation between  these  two  branches  of  the  service. 


332         GENERAL  PERSHING'S  REPORT 

As  to  the  Americans  in  Europe  not  in  the  military  ser- 
vice, it  is  the  greatest  pleasure  to  say  that,  both  in  official 
and  in  private  life,  they  are  intensely  patriotic  and  loyal, 
and  have  been  invariably  sympathetic  and  helpful  to  the 
army. 

Finally,  I  pay  the  supreme  tribute  to  our  officers  and 
soldiers  of  the  line.  When  I  think  of  their  heroism, 
their  patience  under  hardships,  their  unflinching  spirit  of 
offensive  action,  I  am  filled  with  emotion  which  I  am  un- 
able to  express.  Their  deeds  are  immortal,  and  they 
have  earned  the  eternal  gratitude  of  our  country. 

I  am,  Mr.  Secretary,  very  respectfully, 

JOHN  J.  PERSHING, 
General,  Commander  in  Chief, 

American  Expeditionary  Forces* 
To  the  Secretary  of  War. 


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